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SCATALOGIC RITES
OF ALL NATIONS.
A Dissertation upon the Employment of Excrement it ions Remedial
Agents in Religion, Therapeutics, Divination, Witchcraft,
Love-Philters, etc., in all Parts of the Globe.
Based croN Original Notes and Personal Observation, and upon
Compilation prosi over One Thousand Authorities.
BY
CAPTAIN JOHN G. BOURKE,
Third Cavalry, U. S. A.,
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement op Science ; Member op the Anthro-
pological Society, op Washington, D.C. ; Member op the "Congres des Americanistes ; M
Associate Member op the Victoria Institute and Philosophical Society of Great Britain ;
Member of the Society op American Folk-Lore;
Author of the "Snake Dance op the Moquis op- Arizona;" "As Apache Campaign;" *' Notes
on the Theogony and Cosmogony op the Mojayes *' ; "The Gentile Organization of the
Apaches;'' "Mackenzie's Last Fight with the Cueyennes," and other works.
NOT FOR GENERAL PERUSAL.
"WASHINGTON, D.C.
W. H. LOWDERMILK & CO.
1891.
Copyright, 1891,
By John G. Bolrke.
©niijcnitg ISrrss:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.
PREFACE.
rPHE subject of Scatalogic or Stercoraceous Eites and
Practices, however repellent it may be under some of its
aspects, is none the less deserving of the profoundest considera-
tion, — if for no other reason than that from the former universal
dissemination of such aberrations of the intellect, as well as of the
religious impulses of the human race, and their present curtail-
ment or restriction, the progress of humanity upward and onward
may best be measured.
Philosophical and erudite thinkers of past ages have published
tomes of greater or less magnitude upon this subject ; among
these authors, it may be sufficient, at this moment, to mention
Schurig, Etmuller, Flemming, Paullini, Beckherius, Eosinus Len-
tilius, and Levinus Lemnius. The historian Buckle regarded the
subject as one well worthy of examination and study, as will
appear in the text from the memoranda found in his scrap-books
after his death.
The philosopher Boyle is credited with the paternity of a
work which appeared over the signature " B," bearing upon the
same topic.
The anonymous author or authors of the very learned pamphlet
" Bibliotheca Scatalogica," for the perusal of which I am indebted
to the courtesy of Surgeon John S. Billings, collected a mass of
most valuable bibliographical references.
Quite recently there have appeared in the " Mitterlungen
Gesselsch.," Wien, 1888, two pages of the work of Dr. M. Holler,
" Volksmedicin und Aberglaube in Oberbayern Gegenwart und
Vergangenheit," describing some of the excrementitious remedies
still existing in the folk-medicine of Bavaria,
IV PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
But while treatises upon this subject are by no means rare,
they are not accessible, except to those scholars who are within
reach of the largest libraries ; and while all, or nearly all, indicate
the association of these practices with sorcery and witchcraft, as
well as with folk-medicine, no writer has hitherto ventured to
suggest the distinctively religious derivation to be ascribed to
them.
From the moment when the disgusting " Urine Dance of the
Zurlis " was performed in the author's presence down to the hour
of concluding this work, a careful examination has been made of
more than one thousand treatises of various kinds and all sizes,
from the musty pig-skin covered black letter of the fifteenth cen-
tury to the more modest but not less valuable pamphlet of later
years. These treatises have covered the field of primitive reli-
gion, medicine, and magic, and have likewise included a most
liberal portion of the best books of travel and observation among
primitive peoples in every part of the world ; not only English
authorities, but also the writings of the best French, Spanish,
German, Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Celtic authors are here pre-
sented, together with an examination of what has come down to
us from leaders of Eastern religious thought and from the monastic
" leeches " of the Anglo-Saxons.
A great number of examples of the use of stercoraceous reme-
dies has been inserted under the head of " Therapeutics," for two
excellent reasons : first, to show that the use of such remedies
was most widely disseminated ; and secondly, to demonstrate that
this use had been handed down from century to century.
Had any other course been followed, objection might have been
raised that unusual remedies, or those of eccentric practitioners
only, had been sought for and quoted for the purpose of proving
that Filth Pharmacy was a thoroughly consistent and fully de-
veloped school in the science of therapeutics, from the most prim-
itive times down to and even overlapping our own days.
A perusal of this volume cannot fail to convince the most
critical that it has been written in a spirit of fairness as much as
is possible to human nature, and without prepossession or preju-
dice in any direction.
PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. V
The fact that so many citations have heen incorporated in this
compilation without comment, may be claimed as an additional
proof of the unbiassed character of the work.
No collection of facts constitutes a science. All that can prop-
erly be done with facts not positively known to be related, is to
place them, as here placed, in juxtaposition, leaving the reader to
frame his own conclusions ; by no other method can an author
escape the imputation of distorting or perverting evidence.
The great number of letters received from distinguished
scholars in all parts of the world, from Edinburgh to New South
Wales, attests the interest felt in this treatise, and at the same
time places the author under obligations which words cannot
express. Special acknowledgments are due to : —
Professor W. Robertson Smitii, Edi-
tor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Major-General J. G. Forlong, author
of " The Rivers of Life," Edinburgh.
Havelock Ellis, Esq., Editor of the
Contemporary Science Series.
Prof. Tyrrell S. Leith, of Bombay
(since dead).
Frank Rede Fowke, Esq., South
Kensington Museum, London.
James G. Frazer, Esq., M. A., author
of "The Golden Bough," Trinity
College, Cambridge.
Dr. Gustav Jaeger, of Stuttgart.
Dr. J. W. Kingsley, of Cambridge.
Prof. E. B. Tylor, Oxford.
Prof. E. N. Horsford, Harvard Uni-
versity.
Prof. F. W. Putnam, Peabody Archae-
ological Museum, Cambridge, Mass.
Surgeon Washington Matthews,
U. S. Army.
Surgeon B. J. D. Irwin, U. S. Army.
F. B. Kyngdon, Esq., Secretary Royal
Society, Sydney, New South Wales.
J. F. Mann, Esq., Sydney, New South
Wales.
John Frazer, Esq., LL.D., Sydney,
New South Wales.
Capt. Henri Jouan, French Navy.
Dr. Bernard, Cannes, France.
Dr. Robert Fletcher.
Dr. Franz Boas, Clark University,
Worcester, Mass.
Dr. Henry Stricker, Frankfort,
Germany.
Chief Engineer Melville, U. S.
Navy.
Prof. Otis T. Mason, National Mu-
seum, Washington, D. C.
William H. Gilder, the Arctic ex-
plorer and writer.
Dr. Albert S. Gatschet, Bureau of
Ethnology, Washington, D. C.
Rev. Henry Clay Trumbull, Editor
of " The Sunday School Times," of
Philadelphia, Penn.
Hon. Lambert Tree, ex-minister to
Russia.
Andrew Lang.
J. S. Hittel, San Francisco, Cal.
M. M. H. Gaidoz, editor of " Melu-
sine," Paris.
Dr. S. B. Evans, Ottumwa, la.
VI
PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
Rev. J. Owen Dorset, Bureau of
Ethnology, Washington, D. C.
Mr. W. W. Rockhill, the distin-
guished Oriental scholar and ex-
plorer.
Hon. H. T. Allen, Secretary Corean
Legation.
Mrs. F. D. Bergen, and many other
correspondents.
Last, but not least, to Dr. J. Hamp-
den Porter, of the city of Wash-
ington, whose friendly offices
amounted practically to a collabo-
ration.
All papers of this series which relate to the manners and usages
of the Indians of the southwestern portion of our territory, espe-
cially those concerning the urine dances, phallic dances, snake
dances of the Zunis, Mokis, and other Pueblos ; the Navajoes of
New Mexico ; the sun dance of the Sioux, etc., have been com-
piled from memoranda gathered under the direction of Lieutenant-
General P. H. Sheridan, in 1881 and 1882. Those referring to
Apaches, etc., of Arizona ; to Northern Mexico ; to pueblo ruins
and cliff and cave dwellings ; to Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows, Ara-
pahoes, Pawnees, Shoshones, Utes, and other tribes, extending
back to 1869, were mainly obtained while the author was serving
as aide-de-camp upon the staff of Brigadier-General George
Crook, during the campaigns conducted by that officer against
hostile tribes west of the Missouri, from the British line down
into Mexico, and to a considerable extent under General Crook's
direction, and with his encouragement and assistance.
The translations from German texts were made by Messrs.
Smith, Pratz, and Bunnemeyer, while for the analysis of the pills
made out of the ordure of the Grand Lama of Thibet, the author
desires to express his acknowledgments to Dr. W. M. Mew.
J. G. B.
CONTENTS.
Chapter Page
I. Preliminary Remarks 1
II. The Urine Dance of the Zunis 4
III. The Feast of Fools in Europe 11
Comparison between the Feast of Fools and tlie Urine Dance. —
The Feast of Fools traced back to most ancient times. — Dis-
appearance of the Feast of Fools. — The " Szombatiaks " of
Transylvania.
IV. The Commemorative Character of Religious Festivals . . 24
The generally sacred character of dancing. — Fray Diego
Duran's account of the Mexican festivals. — The Urine Dance
of the Zunis may conserve a tradition of the time when vile
aliment was in use.
V. Human Excrement used in Food by the Insane and Others 29
VI. The Employment of Excrement in Food by Savage Tribes 33
VII. Urine in Human Food 38
Chinook olives. — Urine in bread-making. — Human ordure
eaten by East Indian fanatics.
VIII. The Ordure of the Grand Lama of Thibet 42
Hue and Dubois compared.
IX. The Stercoranistes 54
Un Dalai-Lamas Irlandais.
X. The Bacchic Orgies of the Greeks 62
Bacchic orgies in North America. — The sacrifice of the dog a
substitution for human sacrifice.
XL Poisonous Mushrooms used in Ur-Orgies 65
The mushroom drink of the Borgie well.
XII. The Mushroom in Connection with the Fairies .... 85
VI 11
CONTENTS.
Chapter Page
XIII. A Use op Poisonous Fungi quite probably existed
AMONG THE MEXICANS 89
Mushrooms and toadstools worshipped by American
Indians. — A former use of fungus indicated in the myths
of Ceylon, and in the laws of the Brahmins.
XIV. The Onion adored by the Egyptians 91
XV. Sacred Intoxication and Phallism 97
XVI. An Inquiry into the Druidical Use or the Mistletoe 99
former employment of an infusion or decoction of mistle-
toe. — The mistletoe alleged to have been held sacred by
the Mound-builders. — The mistletoe festival of the Mex-
icans. — Vestiges of Druidical rites at the present day. —
The Linguistics of the mistletoe.
XVII. Cow Dung and Cow Urine in Religion 112
Cow dung also used by the Israelites.
XVIII. Ordure alleged to have been used in Food by the
Israelites 119
The sacred cow's excreta a substitute for human sacrifice. —
Human ordure and urine still used in India.
XIX. Excrement Gods of Romans and Egyptians .... 127
The Assyrian Venus had offerings of dung placed upon her
altars. — The Mexican goddess Suehiquecal eats ordure.
— Israelitish dung-gods.
XX. Latrines 131
Posture in urination.
XXI. An Inquiry into the Nature of the Rites connected
with the Worship of Bel-Phegor 151
XXII. Obscene Tenures 165
XXIII. Tolls of Flatulence exacted of Prostitutes in France 163
The sacred character of bridge-building.
XXIV. Obscene Survivals in the Games of English Rustics . 173
XXV. Urine and Ordure as Signs of Mourning 176
XXVI. Urine and Ordure in Industries 177
Tanning. — Bleaching. — Dyeing. — Plaster. — As a cure
for tobacco. — To restore the odor of musk and the color
of coral. — Cheese manufacture. — Opium adulteration. —
Egg-hatching. — Taxes on urine. — Chrysocollon. — For
removing ink stains. — As an article of jewelry. — Tattoo-
ing.— Agriculture. — Urine used in the manufacture of
salt. — Preparation of sal ammoniac, phosphorus, solution
of indigo. — Manure employed as fuel. — Smudges. —
CONTENTS.
IX
Chaptee pAGE
Human and animal excreta to promote the growth of the
hair and eradicate dandruff. — As a means of washing
vessels. — Filthy habits in cooking.
XXVII. Urine in Ceremonial Ablutions 201
XXVIII. Urine in Ceremonial Observances 206
Stercoraceous chair of the Popes.
XXIX. Ordure in Smoking 214
XXX. Courtship and Marriage 210
Ordure in love-philters. — Anti-philters.
XXXI. Siberian Hospitality 228
XXXII. Parturition 233
Weaning.
XXXIII. Initiation of Warriors. — Confirmation 237
Fearful rite of the Hottentots. — War-customs. — Arms
and armor.
XXXIV. Hunting and FisniNG 244
XXXV. Divination. — Omens. — Dreams 246
XXXVI. Ordeals and Punishments, Terrestrial and Supernal 249
XXXVII. Insults 256
XXXVIII. Mortuary Ceremonies 261
XXXIX. Myths 266
XL. Urinoscopy, or Diagnosis by Urine 272
On the influence of the emotions upon the egestae.
XLI. Ordure and Urine in Medicine 277
Extracts from the writings of Dioscorides. — The views of
Galen. — Sextus Placitus. — " Saxon Leechdoms." —
Avicenna. — Miscellaneous. — Human Ordure. — Schu-
rig's ideas regarding the use in medicine of the egestse
of animals. — Ordure and urine in folk-medicine. —
Occult influences ascribed to ordure and urine. — Other
excrementitious remedies. — Hair. — Superstitions con-
nected with the human saliva. — Cerumen or ear-wax. —
Woman's milk. — Human sweat. — Superstitions con-
nected with the catamenial fluid. — After-birth and
lochia;. — Human semen. — Human blood. — Human
skin, flesh, and tallow. — Human skull. — Brain. —
Moss growing on human skull. — Moss growing on
statue. — Lice. — Wool. — Bones aud teeth. — Mar-
row.— Human teeth. — Tartar impurities from the
teeth. — Renal and biliary calculi. — Human bile. —
Bezoar stones. — Lvncurius. — Cosmetics.
CONTENTS.
Chapter Paqb
XLIL Amulets and Talismans 370
XLIII. Witchcraft. — Sorcery. — Charms. — Spells. — Incanta-
tions.— Magic 373
XLIV. A Few Remarks upon Temple or Sacred Prostitution,
and upon the Horns of Cuckolds 405
XLV. Cures by Transplantation 411
XLVI. The Use of the Lingam in India 423
XL VII. Phallic Superstitions in France and elsewhere . . 431
XLVII1. Burlesque Survivals 432
The use of bladders in religious ceremonies.
XLIX. The Worship of Cocks and Hens 440
The Spanish-American sport of " Correr el Gallo," and the
English pastime of " Throwing at ' Shrove Cocks.' " —
The scarabseus of Egypt.
L. The Persistence of Filth Remedies 456
Epilepsy.
LI. An Explanation of the Reason why Human Ordure
and Human Urine were employed in Medicine
and Religious Ceremonies 459
LII. Easter Eggs 461
LIII. The Use of Bladders in making Excrement Sausages 464
LIV. Conclusion 467
BIBLIOGRAPHY 460
INDEX 485
SCATALOGIC RITES
OF ALL NATIONS.
SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
i.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
" The proper study of mankind is man."
" The study of man is the study of man's religion." — Max Mcller.
" Few who will give their minds to master the general principles of savage
religion will ever again think it ridiculous. . . . Far from its beliefs and practices
being a rubbish heap of miscellaneous folly, they are consistent and logical in so
high a degree as to begin, as soon as even roughly classified, to display the princi-
ples of their formation and development ; and these principles prove to be essen-
tially rational, though working in a mental condition of inteuse and inveterate
ignorance." — Primitive Culture, E. B. Tylor, New York, 1874, vol. i. p. 21.
n^HE object of the present monograph ia to arrange in a form for
easy reference such allusions as have come under the author's
notice bearing upon the use of human or animal ordure or urine or
articles apparently intended as substitutes for them, whether in rites
of a clearly religious or "medicine" type, or in those which, while not
pronouncedly such, have about them suggestions that they may be sur-
vivals of former urine dauces or ur-orgies among tribes and peoples from
whose later mode of life and thought they have been eliminated.
The difficulties surrounding the elucidation of this topic will no
doubt occur to every student of anthropology or ethnology. The rites
aud practices herein spoken of are to be found only in communities
isolated from the world, and are such as even savages would shrink
from revealing unnecessarily to strangers ; while, too frequently, obser-
vers of intelligence have failed to improve opportunities for noting the
existence of rites of this nature, or else, restrained by a false modesty,
have clothed their remarks in vague and indefinite phraseology, forget-
1
2 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
ting that as a physician, to be skilful, must study his patients both in
sickness and in health, so the anthropologist must study man, not
alone wherein he reflects the grandeur of his Maker, but likewise in
his grosser and more animal propensities.
When the first edition of " Notes and Memoranda," etc., upon this
subject, was distributed by the Smithsonian Institution, the author was
prepared to believe that, to a large and constantly increasing circle of
scholars, the subject would prove of unusual interest, and that, to re-
peat the words of a great emperor, as quoted by a greater philosopher,
all belonging to primitive man was worthy of scrutiny and examination
by those who would become familiar with his history and evolution.
" We ought to be able to say, like the Emperor Maximilian, 'home
sum, humaui nihil a me alienum puto,' or translating his words lite-
rally, ' I am a man ; nothing pertaining to man I deem foreign to my-
self.' " — (Max Miiller, "Chips from a German Workshop." Maximilian
was using a citation from Terence.)
The author also felt that to such a circle it would not be necessary
for him to make an apology analogous to that with which Pellegrini
sought to defend the noble profession of medicine in the early days of
printing.1 But it was with no inconsiderable amount of pride that he
saw his pamphlet honored by the earnest attention of men eminent in
the world of thought, who by suggestion and criticism, given in kind-
ness and received with gratitude, have contributed to the amplification
of the original " Notes and Memoranda " into the present treatise.
That these disgusting rites are distinctively religious in origin, no
one, after a careful perusal of all that is to be presented upon that
head, will care to deny ; and that their examination will be productive
of important results will be equally incontrovertible when that exami-
1 John Baptist Pellegrini, who wrote an "Apologia . . . adversus Philosophiae
et Medicinae calumniatores," at P>ononiae (Bologna), 1582, uses only this expres-
sion, " Quamvis humanis corporis excrementa conspicienda considerandaque esse
praecipiat non tamen propter hoc aliquid suae nobilitati et proestantiae detrahitur,"
p. 190. He means that the nobility of the medical profession is in no manner im-
paired by the fact that the good physician examines the egestae of his patient.
" However disgusting the subject may appear to such readers who do not consider it
in the light of science, the article is a fair specimen of the maxim that, for a sci-
entific mind, nothing is too abject or insignificant for consideration ; and it also
illustrates the other principle, that to the pure everything is pure. Many of the
rites described in these pages show how deeply engraved in the human mind is the
tendency of symbolizing, anthromorphizing, and deifying abstract ideas and phe-
nomena of nature." — (Extract from review by Dr. Alfred Gatchett, Bureau of Eth-
nology, in "Folk-Lore Journal," Boston, Mass.)
THE UEINE DANCE OF THE ZTNIS. 3
nation shall be conducted on the broad principle that the benefit or
detriment mankind may have received from religion in general or from
any particular form of religion, can be ascertained only by a compari-
son between man's actions and principles of conduct in the earliest
stages of culture, and those observable while actuated by the religious
sentiment of the present day.
Hebrews and Christians will discover a common ground of congratu-
lation in the fact that believers in their systems are now absolutely
free from any suggestion of this filth taint, every example to the con-
trary being in direct opposition to the spirit and practice of those two
great bodies to which the world's civilization is so deeply indebted.
But under another point of view, the study of primitive man is an
impossibility and an absurdity unless prosecuted as an investigation
into his mode of religious thought, since religion guided every thought
and deed of his daily life. Rink, after saying that the " whole study
of prehistoric man . . . which has hitherto almost exclusively been
founded upon the stud}* of the ornaments, weapons, and other remains of
primitive peoples," must in future be based upon an inquiry into their
spiritual thought, remarks that " The time will surely come when any
relic of spiritual life brought down to us from prehistoric mankind,
which may still be found in the folk-lore of the more isolated and prim-
itive nations, will be valued as highly as those primitive remains." —
(" Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo," Rink, Edinburgh, 1875, page 6
of Preface.)
Repugnant, therefore, as the subject is under most points of view,
the author has felt constrained to reproduce all that he has seen and
read, hoping that, in the fuller consideration that all forms of primitive
religion are now receiving, this, the most brutal, possibly, of all, may
claim some share of examination and discussion. To serve as a nucleus
for notes and memoranda since gleaned, the author has reproduced his
original monograph, first published in the Transactions of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of Science, 1885, and read by
title at the Ann Arbor, Michigan, meeting, iu the same year.
SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
II.
THE URINE DANCE OF THE ZUNIS.
i^VN the evening of November 17, 1881, during my stay in the vil-
^-^ lage of Zuni, New Mexico, the Nehue-C'ue, one of the secret
orders of the Zunis, sent word to Mr. Frank H. Gushing,1 whose guest
I was, that they would do us the unusual honor of coming to our house
to give us one of their characteristic dances, which, Cushing said, was
unprecedented.
The squaws of the governor's family put the long living-room to
rights, sweeping the floor and sprinkling it with water to lay the dust.
Soon after dark the dancers entered ; they were twelve in number, two
being boys. The centre men were naked, with the exception of black
breech-clouts of archaic style. The hair was worn naturally, with a
bunch of wild-turkey feathers tied in front, and one of corn husks over
each ear. White bands were painted across the face at eyes and
mouth. Each wore a collar or neckcloth of black woollen stuff. Broad
white bands, one inch wide, were painted around the body at the
navel, around the arms, the legs at mid-thighs, and knees. Tortoise-
shell rattles hung from the right knee. Blue woollen footless leggings
were worn with low-cut moccasins, and in the right hand each waved a
wand made of an ear of corn, trimmed with the plumage of the wild
turkey and macaw. The others were arrayed in old, cast-off American
Army clothing, and all wore white cotton night-caps, with corn-husks
twisted into the hair at top of head and ears. Several wore, in addi-
tion to the tortoise-shell rattles, strings of brass sleigh-bells at knees.
One was more grotesquely attired than the rest, in a long India-rubber
gossamer "overall," and with a pair of goggles, painted white, over his
eyes. His general " get-up " was a spirited take-off upon a Mexican
priest. Another was a very good counterfeit of a young woman.
1 Mr. Cushing's reputation as an ethnologist is now so firmly established in two
continents that no further reference to his self-sacrificing and invaluable labors in
the cause of science seems to be necessary.
THE URINE DANCE OF THE ZONI3. 5
To the accompaniment of an oblong drum and of the rattles and hells
spoken of they shuffled into the long room, crammed with spectators of
both sexes and of all sizes and ages. Their song was apparently a
ludicrous reference to everything and everybody in sight, Cushing,
Mindeleff, and myself receiving special attention, to the uncontrolled
merriment of the red-skinned listeners. I had taken my station at
one side of the room, seated upon the banquette, and having in front
of me a rude bench or table, upon which was a small coal-oil lamp.
I suppose that in the halo diffused by the feeble light, and in ray
" stained-glass attitude," I must have borne some resemblance to the
pictures of saints hanging upon the walls of old Mexican churches ;
to such a fancied resemblance I at least attribute the performance
which followed.
The dancers suddenly wheeled into line, threw themselves on their
knees before my table, and with extravagant beatings of breast began
an outlandish but faithful mockery of a Mexican Catholic congrega-
tion at vespers. One bawled out a parody upon the pater-noster, an-
other mumbled along in the manner of an old man reciting the rosary,
while the fellow with the India-rubber coat jumped up and began a
passionate exhortation or sermon, which for mimetic fidelity was
incomparable. This kept the audience laughing with sore sides
for some moments, until, at a signal from the leader, the dancers
suddenly countermarched out of the room in single file as they had
entered.
An interlude followed of ten minutes, during which the dusty floor
was sprinkled by men who spat water forcibly from their mouths.
The Kehue-Cue re-entered ; this time two of their number were stark
naked. Their singing was very peculiar, and sounded like a chorus of
chimney-sweeps, and their dance became a stiff-legged jump, with heels
kept twelve inches apart. After they had ambled around the room
two or three times, Cushing announced in the Zufii language that a
" feast " was ready for them, at which they loudly roared their appro-
bation, and advauced to strike hands with the munificent " America-
nos," addressing us in a funny gibberish of broken Spanish, English,
and Zufii. They then squatted upon the ground and consumed with
zest large " ollas " full of tea, and dishes of hard tack and sugar. As
they were about finishing this a squaw entered, carrying an " olla " of
urine, of which the filthy brutes drank heartily.
I refused to believe the evidence of my senses, and asked Cushing if
that were really human urine. " Why, certainly," replied he, " and
6 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
here comes more of it." This time it was a large tin pailful, not less
than two gallons. I was standing by the squaw as she offered this
strange and abominable refreshment. She made a motion with her
hand to indicate to me that it was urine, and one of the old men re-
peated the Spanish word mear (to urinate), while my sense of smell
demonstrated the truth of their statements.
The dancers swallowed great draughts, smacked their lips, and, amid
the roaring merriment of the spectators, remarked that it was very,
very good. The clowns were now upon their mettle, each trying to
surpass his neighbors in feats of uastiuess. One swallowed a fragment
of corn-husk, saying he thought it very good and better than bread ;
liis vis-d,-vis attempted to chew and gulp down a piece of filthy rag.
Another expressed regret that the dance had not been held out of
doors, in one of the plazas ; there they could show what they could do.
There they always made it a point of honor to eat the excrement of
men and dogs.
For my own part, I felt satisfied with the omission, particularly as
the room, stuffed with one hundred Zunis, had become so foul aud
filthy as to be almost unbearable. The dance, as good luck would
have it, did not last many minutes, and we soon had a chance to run
into the refreshing night air.
To this outline description of a disgusting rite, I have little to add.
The Zuiiis, in explanation, stated that the Nehue-Cue were a Medicine
Order, which held these dances from time to time to inure the stomachs
of members to any kind of food, no matter how revolting. This state-
ment may seem plausible enough when we understand that religion
and medicine, among primitive races, are almost always one and the
same thing, or at least so closely intertwined, that it is a matter of
difficulty to decide where one begins and the other ends.1
Religion, in its dramatic ceremonial, preserves, to some extent, the
history of the particular race in which it dwells. Among nations of
high development, miracles, moralities, and passion plays have taught,
down to our own day, in object lessons, the sacred history in which the
1 There are three secret orders in Zufii, — the "Zuni," the "Knife," and the
" Nehue-Cue." The object of the latter is said to be to teach fortitude to its mem-
bers, as well as to teach them the therapeutics of stomachic disorders, etc. In their
dances they resort to the horrible practice of drinking human urine, eating human
excrement, animal excrement, and other nastiness which can only be believed by
seeing it." — (Extract from the Personal Notes of Captain Bourke, November 16,
18S1.)
THE URIXE DANCE OF THE ZUNIS. 7
spectators believed. Some analogous purpose may have been held iu
view by the first organizers of the urine dance. In their early history,
the Zuiiis and other Pueblos suffered from constant warfare with sav-
age antagonists and with each other. From the position of their vil-
lages, long sieges must of necessity have been sustained, in which sieges
famine and disease, no doubt, were the allies counted upon by the in-
vesting forces. We may have in this abominable dance a tradition of
the extremity to which the Zuiiis of the long ago were reduced at some
unknown period. A similar catastrophe in the history of the Jews is
intimated in 2 Kings xviii. 27 ; and again in Isaiah xxxvi. 12 : " But
Rab-shakeh said unto them : hath my master sent me to thy master,
and to thee to speak these words 1 hath he not sent me to the men
which sit on the wall, that they may eat their oion dung and drink their
oion piss with you 1 " Iu the course of my studies I came across a ref-
erence to a very similar dance, occurring among one of the fanatical
sects of the Arabian Bedouins, but the journal in which it was recorded,
the "London Laucet," I think, was uufortuuately mislaid.1
As illustrative of the tenacity with which such vile ceremonial, once
adopted by a sect, will adhere to it and become ingrafted upon its life,
long after the motives which have suggested or commended it have
vanished in oblivion, let me quote a few lines from Max Midler's
" Chips from a German Workshop," " Essay upon the Farsees," pp.
1G3, 164, Scribner's edition, 18G9 : "The nirang is the urine of a cow,
ox, or she-goat, and the rubbing of it over the face and hands is the
second thing a Parsee does after getting out of bed. Either before
applying the nirang to the face and hands, or while it remains on the
hands after being applied, he should not touch anything directly with
his hauds ; but, in order to wash out the nirang, he either asks some-
body else to pour water on his hands, or resorts to the device of taking
hold of the pot through the intervention of a piece of cloth, such as a
handkerchief or his sudra, — that is, his blouse. He first pours water
on his hand, then takes the pot in that hand and washes his other
hand, face, and feet." — (Quoting from Dadabhai-Xadrosi's " Descrip-
tion of the Parsees.")
1 "There must, I think, be some mistake about the fanatical dance of Arabian
Bedouins ; probably one of the wild practices of Moslem Dervishes was described in
the source you have mislaid. These practices are Turkish or Persian, not Arabian,
in origin. The Rifar Dervishes eat live serpents and scorpions, and, I dare say,
perform still more disgusting acts." — (Personal letter from Professor W. Robertson
Smith, Christ's College, Cambridge, England.)
8 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Continuing, Max Miiller says : " Strange as this process of purifica-
tion may appear, it becomes perfectly disgusting when we are told that
women, after childbirth, have not only to undergo this sacred ablution,
but actually to drink a little of the nirang, and that the same rite is
imposed on children at the time of their investiture with the Sudra
and Koshti, — the badges of the Zoroastrian faith."
Before proceeding further it may be advisable to clinch the fact that
the Urine Dance of the Zuiiis was not a sporadic instance, peculiar to
that pueblo, or to a particular portion of that pueblo ; it was a tribal
rite, recognized and commended by the whole community, and entering
into the ritual of all the pueblos of the Southwest.
Upon this point a few words from the author's personal journal of
Nov. 24, 1881, may well be introduced to prove its existence among
the Moquis, — the informant, Nana-je, being a young Moqui of the
strictest integrity and veracity : " In the circle I noticed Nana-je and
the young Nehue-cue boy who was with us a few nights siuce. During
a pause in the conversation I asked the young Nehue if he had been
drinking any urine lately. This occasioned some laughter among the
Indians ; but to my surprise Nana-je spoke up and said : * I am a Ne-
hue also. The Nehue of Zuiii are nothing to the same order among the
Moquis. There the Nehue not only drink urine, as you saw done the
other night, but also eat human and animal excrement. They eat it
here too ; but we eat all that is set before us. We have a medicine
which makes us drunk like whiskey ; we drink a lot of that before we
commence ; it makes us drunk. We don't care what happens ; and
nothing of that kind that we eat or drink cau ever do us any harm.'
The Nehue-cue are to be found in all the pueblos on the Rio Grande
and close to it ; only there they don't do things openly."
In addition to the above, we have the testimony of Mr. Thomas V.
Iveam, who has lived for many years among the Moquis, and who con-
firms from personal observation all that has been here said.
The extracts from personal correspondence with Professor Bandelier
are of special value, that gentleman having devoted years of pains-
taking investigation to the history of the Pueblos, and acquired a most
intimate knowledge of them, based upon constant personal observation
and scholarship of the highest order.
In a personal letter, dated Santa Fe, N. M., June 7, 1888, he tells,
among much other most interesting information, that he saw at the
Pueblo of Cochiti, on Nov. 10, 1880, "the Koshare eating their own
excrement."
THE URINE DANCE OF THE ZUNIS. 9
The following description of the " Club-house " of the Nehue-cue
may be of interest : " It was twenty-one paces long, nine paces wide,
with a banquette running round ou three sides ; in front of the altar
were sacred bowls of earthenware, with paintings of tadpoles to typify
water of summer, frogs for perennial water, and the sea-serpent for
ocean water. (They describe the sea-serpent (vibora del mar) as very
large, with feathers (spray?) on its head, eating people who went into
the water, and when cut up with big knives yielding a great deal of
oil.) In the first ot the sacred dishes was a conch-shell from the sea,
wands made of ears of corn, with hearts of chaluhihuitl, and exterior
ornamentation of the plumage of the parrot and turkey. Bowls of
sacred meal (kuiiqae) were ou the floor ; this sacred meal, to be found
in. niches in the house of every Zuni, or for that matter of almost every
pueblo throughout New Mexico and Arizona, is generally made of a
mixture of blue corn-meal, shells, and chalchihuitl ; but for more
solemn occasions, as the old Indian Pedro Pino assured me, sea-sand
is added. Around the room at intervals were pictographs of birds, —
ducks and others, — nine in number ou one side, and nine of clown-
gods on the other. These pictures were fairly well delineated in black
and in red and yellow ochre. The god of "The Winged Knife" was
represented back of the altar. In this room were also kept several of
the painted oblong wooden drums seen in every sacred dance." — (Ex-
tract from personal notes of Captain Bourke, Nov. 17, 1881.)
" Have you ever, while in New Mexico, witnessed the dance of that
cluster or order called the " Ko-sha-re " among the Queres, " Ko-sa-re "
among the Tehuas, and "Shu-re" among the Tiguasl I have wit-
nessed it several times ; and these gentlemen, many of whom belong to
the circle of my warm personal friends, display a peculiar appetite
for what the human body commonly not only rejects, but also ejects.
I am sorry that I did not know of your work any sooner, as else I could
have given you very full descriptions of these dances. The cluster in
question have a very peculiar task, inasmuch as the ripening of all
kinds of fruits is at their charge, even the fruit in the mother's womb,
and their rites are therefore of sickening obscenity. The swallowing
of excrements is but a mild performance in comparison with what I
have been obliged to see and witness." — (Letter from Professor Bande-
lier, dated at Santa M, N. M., April 25, 1888.)
Major Ferry, whom the author met in the office of General Robert
McFeely, Acting Secretary of War, Oct. 5, 1888, stated that he was
the son of the first Protestant missionary to build a church at Macki-
10 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
naw, and that the Indians of the Ojibway tribe who lived in the neigh-
borhood of that post indulged from time to time iu orgies in which the
drinking of urine was a feature.
Mr. Daniel W. Lord, a gentleman who was for a time associated with
Mr. Frank H. Gushing in his investigations among the Zunis of New
Mexico, makes the following statement : —
" In June, 1888, I was a spectator of an orgy at the Zufii pueblo in
New Mexico. The ceremonial dance of that afternoon had been finished
in the small plaza generally used for dauces in the northwestern part
of the pueblo when this supplementary rite took place. One of the
Indians brought into the plaza the excrement to be employed, and it
was passed from hand to haud and eaten. Those taking part in the
ceremony were few in number, certainly not more than eight or ten.
They drank urine from a large shallow bowl, and meanwhile kept up a
running fire of comments and exclamations among themselves, as if
urging one another to drink heartily, which indeed they did. At
last one of those taking part was made sick, and vomited after the
ceremony was over. The inhabitants of the pueblo upon the house-
tops overlooking the plaza were interested spectators of the scene.
Some of the sallies of the actors were received with laughter, and
others with signs of disgust and repugnance, but not of disapprobation.
The ceremony was not repeated, to my knowledge, during my stay at
the pueblo, which continued till July, 1889." — (Personal letter to
Captain Bourke, dated Washington, D. C, May 26, 1890.)
THE FEAST OF FOOLS IN EUBOPE. H
ni.
THE FEAST OF FOOLS IX EUROPE.
/"1LOSELY corresponding to this urine dance of the Zufiis was the
^ Feast of Fools in Continental Europe, the description of which
here given is quoted from Dulaure : —
" La grand'messe commencait alors ; tous les ecclesiastiques y assis-
taient, le visage barbouille de noir, ou couvert d'uu masque hideux ou
ridicule. Pendant la celebration, les uns, vetus en baladins ou eu femmes,
dansaient au milieu du chceur et y chantaient des chansons bouffouea
ou obscenes. Lea autres venaient manger sur l'autel des saucissea et
des boudius, jouer aux cartes ou aux dez, devant le pietre celebrant,
l'encensaient avec uu encensoir, ou brulaient de vieilles savates, et lui
eu faisaient respirer la fumee.
" Apres la messe, nouveaux actes d'extravagance et d'impiete. Lea
pretres, confondus avec les habitaus des deux sexes, couraient, dan-
saient dans l'eglise, s'excitaieut a toutes les folies, a toutes les actions
licencieuses que leur inspirait une imagination etfrenee. Plus de honte,
plus de pudeur ; aucune digue n'anetait le debordemeut de la folie et
des passions. . . .
" Au milieu du tumulte, des blasphemes et des chants dissolus, on
voyait les uns se depouiller entierement de leurs habits, d'autres se
livrer aux actes du plus honteux libertinage.
"... Les acteurs, montes sur des tombereaux pleins d'ordures,
s'amusiiient a en jeter a la populace qui les entouraient. . . . Ces
scenes etaient toujoursaccompagneesde chansons ordurieres et impies."
— (Dulaure, "Des Diviuites Generatrices," chap. xv. p. 315 et seq.,
Paris, 1825.)
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FEAST OF FOOLS AND THE URINE DANCE.
In the above description may be seen that the principal actors (tak-
ing possession of the church during high mass) had their faces daubed
12 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
f
aud painted, or masked in a harlequin manner ; that they were dressed
as clowns or as women ; that they ate upon the altar itself sausages
and blood-puddings. Now the word " hlood-puddiug " in French is
boudin ; but boudin also meant "excrement."1 Add to this the fea-
ture that these clowns, after leaving the church, took their stand in
dung-carts (tombereaux) , and threw ordure upon the by-standers ; and
finally that some of these actors appeared perfectly naked (" on voyait
les ana se depouiller entierement de leurs habits "), and it must be ad-
mitted that there is certainly a wonderful concatenation of resemblances
between these filthy aud inexplicable rites on different sides of a grout
ocean.
THE FEAST OF FOOLS TRACED BACK TO MOST ANCIENT TIMES.
Dulaure makes no attempt to ti-ace the origin of these ceremonies in
France ; he contents himself with saying, " Ces ceremonies . . . ont
subsiste pendant douze ou quinze siecles," or, in other words, that
they were of Pagan origin. In twelve or fifteen hundred years the
rite might have been well sublimed from the eating of pure excrement,
as among the Zufiis, to the cousumptiou of the boudin, the excrement
symbol.2 Conceding for the moment that this suspicion is correct, we
have a proof of the antiquity of the urine dance among the Zuiiis. So
great is the resemblance between the Zufii rite and that just described
by Dulaure that we should have reason for believing that the new coun-
try borrowed from the old some of the features transmitted to the
present day ; and were there not evidence of a wider distribution of this
observance, it might be assumed that the Catholic missionaries (who
worked among the Zufiis from 1580, or thereabout, and excepting dur-
ing intervals of revolt remained on duty in Zufii down to the period of
American occupation) found the obscene and disgusting orgy in full
vigor, and realizing the danger, by unwise precipitancy, of destroying
all hopes of winning over this people, shrewdly concluded to tacitly ac-
cept the religious abnormality aud to engraft upon it the plant flourish-
ing so bravely in the vicinity of their European homes.
1 See in Dictionary of French and English Language, by Ferdinand E. A. Gasc,
London, Bell and Daldy, York Street, Covent Garden, 1873.
Littre, whose work appeared in 1863, gives as one of his definitions, "anything
that is shaped like a sausage."
Bescherelle, Spiers and Surenne, and Boyer, do not give Gasc's definition.
2 Aud very probably a phallic symbol also.
THE FEAST OF FOOLS Df EUROPE.
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FEAST OF FOOLS.
In Frauce the Feast of Fools disappeared only with the French
Revolution ; in other parts of Continental Europe it began to wane
about the time of the Reformation. In England, " the abbot of uu-
reason," whoso pranks are outlined by Sir Walter Scott in his novel
" The Abbot," the miracle plays which had once served a good pur-
pose in teaching Scriptural lessons to an illiterate peasantry, and the
" moralities " of the same general purport, faded away under the stern
antagonism of the Puritan iconoclast. The Feast of Fools, as such, was
abolished by Henry VIII. a. d. 1541. — (See "The English Reforma-
tion," Francis Charles Massingberd, London, 1857, p. 125.)1
Picart's account of the Feast of Fools is similar to that given by
Dulaure. He says that it took place in the church, at Christmas tide,
and was borrowed from the Roman Saturnalia ; was never approved
of by the Christian church as a bod}', but fought against from the
earliest times : —
" Les uns etoient masque's ou avec des visages barbouillcs qui faisoient
peur ou qui faisoient rire ; les autres en habits de femmes ou de panto-
mimes, tels que sont les ministres du theatre.
" lis dansoient dans le chceur, en entrant, et chantoient des chansons
obscenes. Les Diacres et les sou-diacres prenoient plaisir a manger des
boudins et des saucisses sur l'autel, an nez du pretre celebrant ; ils
jouoient a des jeux aux cartes et aux des ; ils mettoient dans l'encensoir
quelques morceaus de vieilles savates pour lui faire respirer une
mauvaise odeur.
" Apres la messe, chacun couroit, sautoit et dansoit par l'eglise avec
tant d'impudence, que quelques uns n'avoient pas honte de se porter a
toutes sortes d'indecences et de se depouillier entierement ; ensuite, ils se
faisoient trainer par les rues dans des tombereaux pleins d'ordures, d'ou
ils prenoient plaisir d'eu jeter a la populace qui s'assembloit autourd'eux.
" Ils s'arretoient et faisoient de leurs corps des mouvements et des
postures lascives qu'ils accompagnoient de paroles impudiques.
" Les plus impudiques d'entre les seculiers se meloient parrai le
clerge, pour faire aussi quelques personnages de Foux en habits ecclesi-
astiques de Moines et de Religieuses." — (Picart, "Coutumes et Cert*-
1 Faber advances the opinion that the "mummers "or clowns who figured in
the pastimes of "the abbot of unreason," etc., bear a strong resemblance to the
animal-headed Egyptian priests in the sacred dances represented on the Bembine or
Isiac table. (See Faber's "Pagan Idolatry," London, 1816, vol. ii. p. 479.)
14 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
monies religieuses de toutes les Nations du Monde," Amsterdam, Hol-
land, 1729, vol. ix. pp. 5, 6).
Diderot and d'Alembert use almost the same terms ; the officiating
clergy were clad " les uns comme des bouffons, les autres en habits de
femmes ou masques d'une faeon monstrueuse . . . ils mangeaieut et
jouaient aux des sur l'autel a cote du pretre qui celebroit la messe. Ils
mettoient des ordures dans les encensoirs." They say that the details
would not bear repetition. This feast prevailed generally in Continental
Europe from Christmas to Epiphany, and in England, especially in
York. — (Diderot and D'Alembert, Encyclopaedia, " Fete des Fous,"
Geneva, Switzerland, 1779.)
Markham discovers a resemblance between the " Monk of Misrule "
of Christendom in the Middle Ages, and " Gylongs dressed in parti-
colored habits . . . singing and dancing before the Teshu Lama in
Thibet." — (See Markham's " Thibet," London, 1879, page 95, footnote.
See also Bogle's description of the ceremonies in connection with the
New Year, in presence of the Teshu Lama, in Markham's " Thibet,"
p. 106.)
The Mandans had an annual festival one of the features of which
was " the expulsion of the devil ... He was chased from the village
. . . the women pelting him with dirt." — ("The Golden Bough,"
Frazer, London, 1890, vol. ii. p. 184, quoting Catlin's "North Ameri-
can Indians," page 166.)
The authors who have referred at greater or less length, and with
more or less preciseness, to the Feast of Fools, Feast of Asses, and
others of that kind, are legion ; unfortunately, without an exception,
they have contented themselves with a description of the obscene
absurdities connected with these popular religious gatherings, without
attempting an analysis of the underlying motives which prompted
them, or even making an intelligent effort to trace their origin. Where
the last has been alluded to at all, it has almost invariably been with
the assertion that the Feast of Fools was a survival from the Roman
Saturnalia.
This can scarcely have been the case ; in the progress of this work
it is purposed to make evident that the use of human and animal egestre
in religious ceremonial was common all over the world, antedating the
Roman Saturnalia, or at least totally unconnected with it. The correct
interpretation of the Feast of Fools would, therefore, seem to be that
which recognized it as a reversion to a pre-Christian type of thought
dating back to the earliest appearance of the Aryan race in Europe.
THE FEAST OF FOOLS IS EUROPE. 15
The introduction of the Christian religion was accompanied by many
compromises ; wherever it was opposed by too great odds, in point of
numbers, it permitted the retention of practices repugnant to its own
teachings; or, if the term "permitted" be an objectionable one to
some ears, we may substitute the expression " acquiesced in " for " per-
mitted," and then follow down the course of persistent antagonism,
which, after a while, modified permanent retention into a periodical,
perhaps an irregular, resumption, and this last into burlesque
survival.
Ducange, in his " Glossarium," introduces the Ritual of the Mass at
the Feast of the Ass, familiar to most readers, — but he adds nothing
to what has already been quoted in regard to the Feast of Fools
itself.
This reference from Ducange will also be found in SchafF-Herzog,
"Religious Encyclopaedia," !NTew York, 1882, article "Festival." This
Ritual was written out in 1369 at Viviere in France.
Fosbroke gives no information on the subject of the Feast of Fools
not already incorporated in this volume. He simply says : " In the
Feast of Fools they put on masks, took the dress, etc., of women,
danced and sung in the choir, ate fat cakes upon the horn of the altar,
where the celebrating priest played at dice, put stinking stuff from the
leather of old shoes in the censer, jumped about the church, with the
addition of obscene jests, songs, and unseemly attitudes. Another part
of this indecorous buffoouery was shaving the precentor of fools upon
a stage, erected before the church, in the presence of the people ; and
during the operation he amused them with lewd and vulgar discourses
and gestures. They also had carts full of ordure which they threw
occasionally upon the populace. This exhibition was always in Christ-
mas time or near it, but was not confined to a particular day." —
(Rev. Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, "Cyclopaedia of Antiquities," Lon-
don, 1843, vol. 2, article "Festivals." Most of his information seems
to be derived from Ducange.)
" The Feast of Fools was celebrated as before in various masquer-
ades of Women, Lions, Players, etc. They danced and sung in the
choir, ate fat cakes upon the horn of the altar, where the celebrating
priest played at dice, put stinking stuff from the leather of old shoes
into the censer, ran, jumped, etc., through the church."1
1 " However horrible was this profanation, I could quote a passage where in part
of a curious penance actions most indecent were to be publicly performed upon the
altar-table ; and therefore our ancestors had plainly not the same ludicrous ideas of
10 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
In Brand's " Popular Antiquities," London, 1873, vol. 3, pp. 497—
505, will be found a pretty full description of the Lords of Misrule,
but the only reference of value for our purposes is one from Polydorus
Virgil, who recognized the derivation of these Feasts from the Roman
Saturnalia. " There is nothing," says the author of the essay to re-
trieve the Ancient Celtic, " that will bear a clearer demonstration than
that the primitive Christians, by way of conciliating the Pagans to a
better worship, humored their prejudices by yielding to a conformity
of names and even of customs, where they did not interfere with the
fundamentals of the Christian doctrine. . . . Among these, in imita-
tion of the Roman Saturnalia, was the Festum Fatuorum, when part
of the jollity of the season was a burlesque election of a mock-pope,
mock-cardinals, mock-bishops, attended with a thousand ridiculous
and indecent ceremonies, gambols, and antics, such as singing and
dancing in the churches, in lewd attitudes, to ludicrous anthems, all
allusively to the exploded pretensions of the Druids whom these sports
were calculated to expose to scorn and derision. This Feast of Fools,"
continues he, " had its designed effect, and contributed perhaps more
to the extermination of these heathens than all the collateral aids of
fire and sword, neither of which were spared in the persecution of
them." — (Brand, "Popular Antiquities," London, 1872, vol. i. p. 36.)
Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," edition of London, 1855, article
" Festival of Fools," in lib. iv. cap. 3, contains nothing not already
learned.
Jacob Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology" (Stallybrass), London, 1882,
vol. i. p. 92, has the following : —
" The collection of the Letters of Boniface has a passage lamenting
the confusion of Christian and heathen rites into which foolish or reck-
less priests had suffered themselves to fall."
Banier shows that on the First of January the people of France ran
about the streets of their towns, disguised as animals, masked and
playing all sorts of pranks. This custom was derived from the Druids
and lasted in full vigor "to the twelfth century of the Christian era."
— (" Mythology," Banier, vol. iii. p. 247.)
" The heathen gods even, though represented as feeble in compari-
son with the true God, were not always pictured as powerless in them-
selves ; they were perverted into hostile, malignant powers, into
these mummeries as ourselves. They were the mere coarse festivities of the age
which delighted in low humor." — (Fosbroke, "British Monachism," 2d edition,
London, 1817, quoted principally from Ducange.)
THE FEAST OF FOOLS IN EUROPE. 17
demons, sorcerers, and giants, who had to be put down, but were
nevertheless credited with a certain mischievous activity and influence.
Here and there a heathen tradition or a superstitious custom lived on
by merely changing the names and applying to Christ, Mary, and the
saints what had formerly been related and believed of idols." — (" Teu-
tonic Mythology," Jacob Grimm (Stallybrass), London, 1882, vol. i. In-
troduction, page 5.) . . . " At the time when Christianity began to press
forward, many of the heathen seem to have entertained the notion,
which the missionaries did all in their power to resist, of combining the
new doctrine with the ancient faith and even of fusing them into one.
— (Idem, p. 7.) ... Of Norsemen, as well as of Anglo-Saxons, we are
told that some believed at the same time in Christ and in heathen gods,
or at least continued to invoke the latter in particular cases in which
they had formerly proved helpful to them. So even by Christians
much later the old deities seem to have been named and their aid in-
voked in enchantments and spells. — (Idem, pp. 7 and 8.) . . . The
Teutonic races forsook the faith of their fathers very gradually and
slowly from the fourth to the eleventh century." — (Idem. p. 8.)
On the following pages, 9, 10, and 11, Grimm shows us how little is
really known of the religions of ancient Europe, whether of the Latin
or of the Teutonic or Celtic races ; he alludes to " the gradual trans-
formation of the gods into devils, of the wise women into witches, of
the worship into superstitious customs. — (Idem. p. 11.) Heathen festi-
vals and customs were transformed into Christian. — (Idem, p. 12.) . ., .
Private sacrifices, intended for gods or spirits, could not be eradicated
among the people for a long time, because they were bound up with
customs and festivals, and might at last become an unmeaning prac-
tice." — (Idem, vol. iii. p. 1009.)
" It is a natural and well-known fact that the gods of one nation
become the devils of their conquerors or successors." — (Folk-Medicine,
William George Black, London, 1883, p. 12.)
" Few things are so indestructible as a superstitious belief once im-
planted in human credulity. . . . The sacred rites of the superseded
faith become the forbidden magic of its successors." — ("History of
the Inquisition," Heury Charles Lea, New York, 1888, vol. iii. p. 379.)
"Its gods become evil spirits." — (Idem, p. 379.) . . . The same
views are advanced in Madame Blavatsky's " Isis Unveiled." -
18 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
The " Szombatiaks " of Traxsylvaxia.
In further explanation of the tenacity with which older cults survive
long after the newer religions seem to have gained predominance in
countries and nations, it is extremely appropriate to introduce a pas-
sage from an article in the " St. James' Gazette," entitled " Crypto-
Jews," reprinted in the Sunday edition of the " Sun," New York, some-
time in October, 1S88.
The writer, in speaking of the Szombatiaks of Transylvania, remarks :
" The crypto- Judaism of the Szombatiaks was suspected for centuries,
but not until twenty years ago was it positively known. Then, on the
occasion of a Jewish emancipation act for Hungary, the sturdy old
peasants, indistinguishable in dress, manners, and language from the
native Szeklers, sent a deputation to Pesth to ask that their names
might be erased from the church rolls. They explained that they
were Jews whose forefathers had settled in Hungary at the time of
the expedition of Titus to Dacia. Though baptized, married, and
buried as Christians, maintaining Christian pastors, and attending
Christian churches, they had always in secret observed their ancient
religion."
It is a matter of surprise to find so little on the subject of the Feast
of Fools in Forlong's comprehensive work on Eeligion. All that he
says is that " the Yule-tide fetes were noted for men disguising them-
selves as women, and vice versa, showing their connection with the old
Sigillaria of the Saturnalia, which, formerly observed on the 14th of
January, were afterwards continued to three, four, five, and some say
seven days, and by the common people even until Candlemas Day.
Both were prohibited when their gross immoralities became apparent
to better educated communities. ' In Paris,' says Trusler in his
' Chronology,' ' the First of January was observed as Mask Day for
two hundred and forty years, when all sorts of indecencies and obscene
rites occurred.'" — ("Rivers of Life," Forlong, London, 1883, vol. i.
p. 431.)
In addition to the above, there is evidence of its survival among the
rustic population of Germany. Brand enumerates many curious practices
of the carnival just before Ash Wednesday, and even on that day, after
the distribution of the ashes. Young maidens in Germany were carried
" in a cart or tumbrel " by the youths of the village to the nearest brook
or pond, and there thoroughly ducked, the drawers of the cart throwing
dust and ashes on all near them. In Oxfordshire it was the custom for
THE FEAST OF FOOLS IN EUROPE. 19
bands of boys to stroll from house to house singing and demanding lar-
gess of eggs and bacon, not receiving which, " they commonly cut the
latch of the door or stop the key-hole with dirt " (" Popular Antiqui-
ties," Loudon, 1872, vol. i. pp. 91 et seq., article " Ash Wednesday"),
" or leave some more nasty token of displeasure " (idem). This may
have been a survival from the Feast of Fools. Brand refers to Hos-
pinian, " De Origine Festorum Christianorum,'' " for several curious
customs and ceremonies observed abroad during the three first days of
the Quinquagesima week " (p. 99).
Turning from the Teutonic race to the Slav, we find that the Feast
of Fools seems still to linger among the Russian peasantry. " At one
time a custom prevailed of going about from one friend's house to an-
other masked, and committing every conceivable prank. Then the
people feasted on blinnies, — a pancake similar to the English crum-
pet " (" A Hoosier in Russia," Perry S. Heath, New York, 1888, p. 109) ;
all this at Christmas-tide.
Something very much like it, without any obscene features, was
noted by Blunt in the early years of the present century. See his
''Vestiges," p. 119.
Hone ("Ancient Mysteries Described," London, 1823, pp. 118 et
seq.) thinks that a Jewish imitation of the Greek drama of the close of
the second century, whose plot, characters, etc., were taken from the
Exodus, was the first miracle play. The author was one Ezekiel, who
was believed to have written it with a patriotic purpose after the de-
struction of Jerusalem. The early Fathers — Cyril, Tertullian, Cy-
prian, Basil, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Augustine — inveighed against
sacred dramas ; but the outside pressure was too great, and the Church
was forced to yield to popular demand.
As late as the fifteenth century Pius II. said that the Italian priests
had probably never read the Xew Testament ; and Robert Stephens
made the same charge against the doctors of the Sorbonne in the same
age.
The necessity of dramatic representation would therefore soon out-
weigh objections made on the score of historical anachronism or
doctrinal inaccuracy in these miracle plays.
Theophylact, Patriarch of Constantinople in the tenth century, is
credited by the Byzantine historian Cedranus with the introduction
of the Feast of Fools and Feast of the Ass, " thereby scandalizing
God and the memory of his saints, by admitting into the sacred service
diabolical dances, exclamations of ribaldry, and ballads borrowed from
20 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
the streets and brothels." — (Hone, quoting Wharton, " Miscellaneous
Writings upon the Drama and Fiction," vol. ii. p. 369.)
In 1590, at Paris, the mendicant orders, led by the Bishop of Senlis,
paraded the streets with tucked up robes, representing the Church
Militant. These processions were believed to be the legitimate off-
spring of heathen pageants, — that is, that of Saint Peter ill Vinculis
was believed to be the transformed spectacle in honor of Augustus's
victory at Actium, etc.
Beletus describes the Feast of Fools as he saw it in the twelfth cen-
tury. His account, given by Hone (p. 159), agrees word for word with
that of Dulaure, excepting that, through an error of translation per-
haps, he is made to say that the participants " ate rich puddings on
the corners of the altar ; " but as the word "pudding " meant even in
the English language a meat pudding or sausage, the error is an imma-
terial one.
Victor Hugo describes in brief the Feast of Fools as seen at Paris in
1482, on the 6th of January. He says that the " Fete des Rois and the
Fete des Fous were united in a double holiday since time immemorial."
His description is very meagre, but from it may be extracted the in-
formation that in these feasts of fools female actresses appeared masked ;
that the noblest and greatest personages in the kingdom of France
were among the prominent spectators ; but there is not much else.
(See the opening chapters of " Notre Dame.")
The Festival of Moharren in Persia is a kind of miracle play, or
Passion play, commemorating the rise and progress of Islamism.
" Among these occurrences are the deaths of Hassein and Hossein, the
birth of the prophet, the martyrdom of the Imam Rezali, and the death
of Fatimeh, daughter of Mahomet." — (Benjamin, " Persia," London,
1887.)
This reference to the use of pudding or sausage on the altar itself is
the most persistent feature in the descriptions of the whole ceremony.
But little difficulty will be experienced in showing that it was originally
an excrement sausage, prepared and offered up, perhaps eaten, for a
definite purpose. This phase of the subject will be considered further
on ; for the present only one citation need be introduced to show that
in carnival time human excrement itself, and not the symbol, made its
appearance : —
" The following extract from Barnaby Googe's translation of ■ Nao-
georgus' will show the extent of these festivities (that is, those of the
carnival at Shrove Tuesday). After describing the wanton behavior of
THE FEAST OF FOOLS IN EUKOPE. 21
men dressed as women and of women arrayed in the garb of men, of
clowns dressed as devils, as animals, or running about perfectly naked,
the account goes on to say : —
" ' But others bear a torde, that on a cushion soft they lay ;
And one there is that with a flap doth keep the Hies away :
I would there might another be, an officer of those,
Whose room might serve to take away the scent from every nose.' " —
(Quoted in Brand, " Popular Antiquities," London, 1872, vol. i. p. 66,
article " Shrove Tuesday.")
The Puritan's horror of heathenish rites and superstitious vestiges
had for its basis something far above unreasoning fanaticism ; he real-
ized, if not through learned study, by an intuition which had all the
force of genius, that every unmeauing practice, every rustic observance,
which could not prove its title clear to a noble genealogy was a pagan
survival, which conscience required him to tear up aud destroy, root
and branch.
The Puritan may have made himself very much of a burden and a
nuisance to his neighbors before his self-imposed task was completed,
yet it is worthy of remark and of praise that his mission was a most
effectual one in wiping from the face of the earth innumerable vestiges
of pre-Christian idolatry.
This being understood, some importance attaches to the following
otherwise vague couplet from "Hudibras."
"Butler mentions the black pudding in his 'Hudibras,' speaking of
the religious scruples of some of the fanatics of his time : —
" ' Some for abolishing black pudding,
And eating nothing with the blood in.' " —
(Brand, " Popular Antiquities," London, 1872, vol. i. p. 400, article
" Martinmas.")
These sausages, made in links, certainly suggest the boudins of the
Feast of Fools. They were made from the flesh, blood, aud entrails of
pork killed by several families in common on the 17th day of Decem-
ber, known as " Sow Day."
In the early days of the Reformation in Germany, in the May
games, the Pope was "portrayed in his pontificalibus riding on a great
sow, and holding before her taster a dirty pudding." — (Hariugton,
s Ajax," p. 35.)
The most sensible explanation of the Feast of Fools that has as yet
22 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
appeared is to be found in Frazer's "Golden Bough" (London, 1890,
vol. i. pp. 218 et seq., article " Temporary Kings"). He shows that
the regal power was not in ancient times a life tenure, but was either
revoked under the direction of the priestly body when the incumbent
began to show signs of increasing age and diminishing mental powers,
or at the expiration of a fixed period, — generally about twelve years.
In the lapse of time the king's abdication became an empty form, and
his renunciation of powers purely farcical, his temporary successor a
clown who amused the fickle populace during his ephemeral assump-
tion of honors. Examples are drawn from Babylonia, Cambodia, Siam,
Egypt, India, etc., the odd feature being that these festivals occur at
dates ranging from our February to April. During the festival in Siam,
in the month of April, "the dancing Brahmans carry buffalo horns with
which they draw water from a large copper caldron and sprinkle it
on the people ; this is supposed to bring good luck." — (" The Golden
Bough," James G. Fraser, M.A., London, 1890, vol. i. p. 230.)
In the preceding paragraph we have a distinct survival. The buffalo
horns may represent phalli, and the water may be a substitute for a
liquid which to the present generation might be more objectionable.
But upon another matter stress should be laid ; in both the Feast
of Fools and in the Uriue Dance of the Zunis, it has been shown that
some of the actors were naked or disguised as women.
No attempt is made to prove anything in regard to the European
orgy, because research has thrown no light upon the reasons for which
the participants assumed the raiment of the opposite sex.
In the case of the Zunis, the author has had, from the first, a sus-
picion, which he took occasion to communicate to Professor F. W. Put-
nam three years since, that these individuals were of the class called
by Father Lafitau " homines habilles en femme," and referred to with
such frequency by the earliest French and Spanish authorities. This
suspicion has been strengthened by correspondence lately received
from Professor Bandelier which is, however, suppressed at the request
of the latter.
In this connection, the student should not fail to read the remark-
able contribution of A. B. Holder, M. D., of Memphis, Tennessee, in
the New York Medical Journal of Dec. 7, 1889, entitled "The Bote :
description of a peculiar sexual perversion found among the North
American Indians."
An explanation of the " hommes habilles en femme," may be sug-
gested in the following from Boas, descriptive of certain religious
THE FEAST OF FOOLS IN EUROrE. 23
dances of the Eskimo : " Those who were bom in abnormal presenta-
tions, wear women's dresses at this feast, and must make their round
in a direction opposite to the movement of the sun." — (" The Central
Eskimo," Franz Boas, in Sixth Annual Eeport, Bureau of Ethnology,
Washington, D. C, 1888, p. 611.)
24 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
IV.
THE COMMEMORATIVE CHARACTER OF RELIGIOUS
FESTIVALS.
'T'HE opinion expressed above concerning the commemorative char-
-*- acter of religious festivals echoes that which Godfrey Higgins enun-
ciated several generations ago. The learned author of " Auacalypsis "
says that festivals " accompanied with dancing and music "...
" were established to keep in recollection victories or other important
events." (Higgins' " Anacalypsis," London, 1810, vol. ii. p. 424.)
He argues the subject at some length on pages 424-426, but the above
is sufficient for the present purpose.
" In the religious rites of a people I should expect to find the ear-
liest of their habits and customs." — (Idem, vol. i. p. 15.)
Applying the above remark to the Zuni dance, it may be interpreted
as a dramatic pictograph of some half-forgotten episode in tribal his-
tory. To strengthen this view by example, let us recall the fact that
the army of Crusaders under Peter the Hermit was so closely be-
leaguered by the Moslems in Nicomedia in Bithynia that they were com-
pelled to drink their own urine. We read the narrative set out in
cold type. The Zuuis would have transmitted a record of the event
by a dramatic representation which time would incrust with all the
veneration that religion could impart.
The authority for the above statement in regard to the Crusaders is
to be found in Purchas, "Pilgrims," lib. 8, cap. 1, p. 1191. Neither
Gibbon nor Michaud expresses this fact so clearly, but each speaks of
the terrible sufferings which decimated the undisciplined hordes
of Walter the Penniless and Peter, and reduced the survivors to
cannibalism.
The urine of horses was drunk by the people of Crotta while
besieged by Metellus. — (See, in Montaigne's Essays, " On Horses,"
cap. xlviii. ; see also, in Harington, "Ajax" — "Ulysses upon Ajax,"
p. 42.)
COMMEMORATIVE CHARACTER OF RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS. 25
Shipwrecked English seamen drank human urine for want of water.
(See in Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1188.) In the year 1877 Captain Nicho-
las Nolan, Tenth Cavalry, while scouting with his troop after hostile
Indians on the Staked Plains of Texas, was lost ; and as supplies be-
came exhausted, the command was reduced to living for several days
on the blood of their horses and their own urine, water not being
discovered in that vicinity. — (See Hammersley's Record of Living
Officers of the United States Army.)
History is replete with examples, of the same general character;
witness the sieges of Jerusalem, Numantia, Ghent, the famine in
France under Louis XIV., and many others.
THE GENERALLY SACRED CHARACTER OP DANCING.
" Dancing was originally merely religious, intended to assist the mem-
ory in retaining the sacred learning which originated previous to the
invention of letters. Indeed, I believe that there were no parts of the
rites and ceremonies of antiquity which were not adopted with a
view to keep in recollection the ancient learning before letters were
known." — (Higgins' " Anacalypsis," vol. ii. p. 179.)
In one of the sieges of Samaria, it is recorded that " The fourth part
of a cab of dove's dung sold for five pieces of silver." — (2 Kings,
vi. 25.)
There is another interpretation of the meaning of this expression, not
so literal, which it is well to insert at this point.
" When Samaria was besieged, the town was a prey to all the horrors
of famine ; hunger was so extreme that five pieces of silver was the
price given for a small measure (fourth part of a cab) of dove's dung.
This seems, at first sight, ridiculous. But Bochart maintains very
plausibly that this name was then and is now given by the Arabs to a
species of vetch (pois chiches)." — (" Philosophy of Magic," Eusebe
Salverte, New York, 1862, vol. i. p. 70.)
" The pulse called garbansos is believed by certain authors to be
the dove's dung mentioned at the siege of Samaria ; . . . they have
likewise been taken for the pigeons' dung mentioned at the siege of
Samaria. And, indeed, as the cicer is pointed at one end and acquires
an ash color in parching, the first of which circumstances answers to
the figure, the other to the usual color of pigeons' dung, the supposi-
tion is by no means to be disregarded." — ("Shaw's Travels in Bar-
bary," in " Pinkerton's Voyages," London, 1814, vol. xv. p. 600.)
26 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
FRAY DIEGO DDRAN'S ACCOUNT OF THE MEXICAN FESTIVALS.
All that Higgins believed was believed and asserted by the Dominican
missionary Diego Duran. Durau complains bitterly that the unwise
destruction of the ancient Mexican pictographs and all that explained
the religion of the natives left the missionaries in ignorance as to what
was religion aud what was not. The Indians, taking advantage of this,
mocked and ridiculed the dogmas and ceremonies of the new creed in
the very face of its expounders, who still lacked a complete mastery of
the language of the conquered. The Indians never could be induced
to admit that they still adhered to their old superstitions, or that they
were boldly indulging in their religious observances ; many times,
says the shrewd old chronicler, it would appear that they were merely
indulging in some pleasant pastime, while they were really engaged in
idolatry ; or that they were playing games, when truly they were cast-
ing lots for future events before the priest's eyes ; or that they were
subjecting themselves to penitential discipline, when they were sacri-
ficing to their gods. This remark applied to all that they did. In
dances, in baths, in markets, in singing their songs, in their dramas
(the word is "comedia," a comedy, but a note in the margin of the
manuscript says that probably this ought to be "comida," food, or
dinner, or feast), in sowing, in reaping, in putting away the harvest in
their granaries, even in tilling the ground, in building their houses,
in their funerals, in their burials, in marriages, in the birth of chil-
dren, into everything they did entered idolatry and superstition.
" Parece muchas veces pensar que estan haciendo placer y estan
idolatrando ; y pensar que estan jugando y estan echando suertes de
los sucesos delante de nuestros ojos y no los entendemos y pensamos
que se discipliuan y estanse sacrificando.
" Y asi erraron mucho los que con bueno celo (pero no con mucha
prudencia), quemaron y destruyeron al principio todas las pinturas de
antiguallas que tenian ; pues, nos dejaron tan sin luz que delante de
nuestros ojos idolatran y no los entendemos.
" En los mitotes, en los banos, en los mercados, y en los cantares que
cantan lamentando sus Dioses y sus Senores Antiguos, en las comedias,
en los banquetes, y en el diferenciar en el de ellas, en todo se halla
supersticiou e idohitria ; en el sembrar, en el coger, en el encerrar en
los troges, hasta en el labrar la tierra y edificar las casas ; pues en los
mortuorios y entierros, y en los casarnientos y en los nacimieutos de
los uinos, especialmente si era hijo de algun Seiior; eran estrauas las
COMMEMORATIVE CHARACTER OF RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS. 27
ceremonias que se le hacian ; y donde todo se perfeccionaba era eu la
celebraciou de las fiestas ; finaluiente, en todo mezclaban supersticiou e
idolatria ; hasta en irse a bafiarse al rio los viejos, puesto escnipulo a
la republica sino fuese habiendo precedido tales y tales ceremonias ;
todo lo cual uos es encubierto por el gran secreto que tienen." — (Diego
Duran, lib. 2, concluding remarks.)
Fray Diego Duran, a Fray Predicador of the Dominican order, says,
at the end of his second volume, that it was finished in 1581.
The very same views were held by Father Geronimo Boscaua, a Fran-
ciscan, who ministered for seventeen years to the Indiaus of California.
Every act of au Indian's life was guided by religion. — (See " Chinig-
chinich," included in A. A. Bobinson's "California," New York, 1850.)
The Apaches have dances in which the prehistoric condition of the
tribe is thus represented ; so have the Mojaves and the Zunis ; while
in the snake dance of the Moquis and the sun dance of the Sioux
the same faithful adherence to traditional costume and manners is
apparent.
THE URINE DANCE OP TIfE ZUNIS MAY CONSERVE A TRADITION OF
THE TIME WHEN VILE ALIMENT WAS IN USE.
The Zuiii dance may therefore not improperly be considered among
other poiuts of view, under that which suggests a commemoration of
the earliest life of this people, when vile aliment of every kind may have
been in use through necessity.
Au examination of evidence will show that foods now justly regarded
as noxious were once not unknown to nations of even greater develop-
ment than any as yet attained by the Rio Grande Pueblos.
Necessity was not always the inciting motive ; frequently religious
frenzy was responsible for orgies of which only vague accounts and still
vaguer explanations have come down to us.
The religious examples will be adduced at a later moment, as will
those in which human or animal excreta have been employed in ordeals
and punishments, terrestrial and supernal.
So long as the lines of investigation are included within civilized
limits, the instances noticed very properly fall under the classification of
mania and of abnormal appetite ; and the latter, in turn, may be sub-
divided into the two classes of the innate and the acquired, the second
of which has presented a constant decrease since physicians have re-
jected such disgusting remedial agents from the Materia Medica.
28 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
That both human ordure and urine have been, and that they may
still to a limited extent be, added by the rustic population of portions
of Europe to the contents of love-philters is a fact established beyond
peradventure ; and that the followers of the Grand Lama of Thibet
stand accused, on what has the semblance of excellent authority, of ob-
taining from their priests the egestse of that potent hierarch and adopt-
ing them as condiments, food, charms, amulets, and talismans, as well
as internal medicines, will be fully stated in the chapters devoted
to that purpose.
Schurig gives numerous examples of the eating of human and animal
excrement by epileptics, by maniacs, by chlorotic young women, or by
women in pregnancy, by children who had defiled their beds and
dreading detection swallowed the evidences of their guilt, and finally
by men and women with abnormal appetites. — (See Schurig, " Chylo-
logia," Dresden, 1725, pp. 45, 81, 84, 780-782.)
Burton relates the story of a young German girl, Catherine Gualter,
in 1571, as told by Cornelius Gemma, who vomited, "among other
things, pigeons' dung and goose-dung." She was apparently a victim
of hysteria, and in her paroxysms had previously swallowed all manner
of objectionable matter. — (See " Anatomy of Melancholy," edition of
London, 1806, vol. i. p. 76.)
" On a vu, surtout dans les hopitaux, des femmes se faire un jeu
d'avaler clandestinement leurs urines a, mesure qu'elles les rendaient, et
essayer faire croire qu'elles n'en rendaient point du tout." — (Personal
letter to Captain Bourke from Mr. Frank Rede Fowke, dated Depart-
ment of Science and Art, South Kensington Museum, London, S. W.,
June 18, 1888.)
HUMAN EXCREMENT USED IN FOOD. 29
V.
HUMAN EXCREMENT USED IN FOOD BY THE INSANE
AND OTHERS.
T^HE subject of excrement-eating among insane persons has engaged
the attention of medical experts. H. B. Obersteiner, in a communi-
cation to the " Psychiatrisches Centralblatt," Wien, 1871, vol. iii. p. 95,
informs that periodical that Dr. A. Erlenmeyer, Jr., induced by a lec-
ture delivered by Professor Lang in 1872, had prepared a tabulated
series of data embodying the results of his observations upon the ex-
istence of cophrophagy among insane persons. He found that one in
a hundred of persons suffering from mental diseases indulged in this
abnormal appetite ; the majority of these were men. No particular
relation could be established between excrement-eating and Onanism ;
and no deleterious effect upon the alimentary organs was detected.
" In pathological reversion of type, due to cerebral disease, there are
certain stages in some forms of mental disease in which some of the
actions to which you refer are not uncommon." — (Personal letter to
Captain Bourke from Surgeon John S. Billings, U. S. Army, in charge
of the Army Medical Museum, dated Washington, D. C, April 23,
1888.)
"A boy of four years old had fouled in bed ; but being much afraid
of whipping, he ate his own dung, yet he could not blot the sign out
of the sheets ; wherefore, being asked by threatenings, he at length
tells the chance. But being asked of its savor, he said it was of a
stinking and somewhat sweet one. ... A noble little virgin, being very
desirous of her salvation, eats her own dung, and was weak and sick.
She was asked of what savor it was, and she answered it was of a
stinking and a waterishly sweet one." These examples Von Helmont
says were personally known to him, as was that of the painter of
Brussels who, going mad, subsisted for twenty-three days on his own
excrements. — (See Vou Helmont's " Oritrika " (English translation),
London, 1662, pp. 211, 212. Von Helmont's work is a folio of 1161
pages.)
30 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
A French lady was in the habit of carrying about her pulverized
human excrements, which she ate, and would afterwards lick her fingers.
(Christian Franz Paullini, " Dreck Apothek," Frankfort, 1696, p. 9.)
Paulliui also gives the instance of the painter of Brussels already cited
on preceding page.
" Bouillon Lagrange, pharmacien a Paris, que ses confreres appellaient
Bouillon a Pointu, a public un ouvrage, intitule la Chimie du Gout,
sur la fabrication des liqueurs de table, et il donne la recette d'une
preparation qu'il appelle Eau de Mille Fleurs qui se compose de bouse
de vache, infusee dans l'eau de vie." — (" Bibliotheca Scatalogica,"
pp. 93-96.)
" As to the excrements of the cow, they are still used to form the
so-called ' eau de mille fleurs,' recommended by several pharmaco-
poeias as a remedy for cachexy." — ("Zoological Mythology," Angelo
de Gubernatis, London, 1874, vol. i. p. 275-277.)
" Scatophagi. Ces gourmets d'un genre particulier, ces ruminants de
nouvelle espece, ces epicurieus biases ou raffmes, s'appellaient scato-
phages, ou scybalophages. (De scybales, scybala, oW/JaAa. Voyez
duns Dioscoride, lib. 5, c. 77, et Gorreus, Def. med. p. 579, les diverses
acceptions de ce mot.) L'empereur Commode etait de ceux-la ; ' Dicitur
saepe praetiosissimis cibis humana stercora miscuisse, nee abstinuisse
gustu,' dit Lampride (Vie de l'empereur Commode, p. 160). Bied-
linus (Linear. Medic, an. 1697, mens. nov. obs. 23, p. 800) rapporte le
cas d'une femme qui affirmait ' nullum cibum in tota vita sua palato
magis satisfecisse.' Sauvage (Nosologie methodique) dit qu'une fille
lui a avoue qu'elle avait mange jadis avec un plaisir infini la croute qui
s'attache aux murailles des latrines. Zacutus Lusitanus a connu une
demoiselle qui, ayant par hasard goutc ses excrements, en fit dans la
suite sa nourriture favorite, au point qu'elle ne pouvait en passer sans
etre malade.
"J. J. Wypffer, Dec. III? an. 2, obs. 135, schol., p. 199, rapporte un
fait du meme genre. De meme : Ehrenfreid ; Pagendornius (Obs. et
hist. phys. med. cent. 3, hist. 95) ; Daniel Eremita (Descript. Helvet.
oper. p. 402) ; P. Tollius (Epist. itinerar. 62, p. 247) ; Tob. Pfanner
(Diatrib. de Charismati, seu miracul. et antiq. eccles., c. 2) ; [Citatious
are also made from Von Helmont, Frommann, Bosinus Lentilius, and
Paullini, which have been quoted elsewhere direct from those authors.]
P. Borellus (Obs. phys. med. cent. 4, obs. 2) ; J. Johnstonus
(Thaumagograph, admirand. homin. c. 2, art. 2) ; George Hanneous
(Dec. II., an. 8, obs. 115); P. Bomelius (Dec. Ill, an 7 and 8, obs.
HUMAN EXCREMENT USED IN FOOD. 31
40) ; Mich. Bern. Valentin. (Novell, med. log. as. II.). Nous croyons
nous rappeler qu'il existe des exemples du meme genre dans l'ouvrage
de J. B. Cardan, intitule : ' De Abstinentis ab usu ciborum fetido-
rurn,' libellus imprime a la suite du traite 'De Utilitate ex adversis
capienda ' de son pere. On a conuu a Paris un ricbe bourgeois, nomine
Paperal, qui, par une Strange depravation de gout, avalait des excre-
ments de petits enfants. (Virey, Nouv. Diet, d'hist. nat. Deterville,
torn. X.) La traduction meme rapporte qu'ils les mangeait avec une
cuiller d'or. Ce n'est pas le seul exemple d'un gout aussi bizarre.
Bouillon portait toujours une boite d'or remplie non de tabac, mais
des excrements humains. (Voy. Dulaure, Hist, de Paris, edit, de 1825,
t. VII. p. 262.)"— (Bibliotheca Scatalogica, pages 03 to 90.)
" La fiente de becasse, dont les fines gourmets, veritablement scato-
phages, sont, comme on sait, tres friands." — (Bibliotheca Scatalogica,
p. 133.)
In this curious book, full of learning and research, there are cita-
tions from more than three hundred authorities, some of them, of
course, merely obscene and not coming within the purview of these
notes, but others, as may be readily understood from reading the ex-
tracts taken from them, of the highest value in a scientific sense.
Schurig gives an instance of voracity in which a certain glutton, after
consuming all other food in sight, was wont to satisfy himself with
urine and excrement : " Et si panes deerant, sua ipse excrementa
comedebat et lotium bibebat." (Schurig, " Chylologia," Dresden,
1725, p. 52.) A case is given of a patient who having once expe-
rienced the beneficial effects of mouse-dung in some complaint, be-
came a confirmed mouse-dung eater, and was in the habit of picking it
up from the floor of his house before the servants could sweep it away.
— (See Schurig, "Chylologia," Dresden, 1725, p. 823 et seq.)
The enceinte wife of a farmer in the town of Hassfort, on the Main,
ate the excrements of her husband, warm and smoking. — (See Chris-
tian Franz Paullini, "Dreck Apothek," edition of Frankfort, 1696,
page 8. See also quotation from " Ephemeridum Physico- Medico-
rum," Leipsig. 1694, on page 212 of this volume.)
" Chacun en fait, en voit, en sent, en touche, en parle, sonvent en
ecrit, quelquefois en lit, et si chacun n'en mange pas, e'est que nous
ne sommes pas encore au temps ou les becasses tomberont toutes
roties; mais de celui-la en voudrait manger." — (Bibliotheca Scata-
logica, p. 21, "Oratio pro Guano Humano.")
An extract is here given from a letter sent to Charlotte Elizabeth of
32 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Bavaria, Princess-Palatine, daughter of Charles Louis, Elector-Palatine
of the Rhine, born at Heidelberg, in 1652; she married the brother
of Louis XIV., the widower of Henrietta Maria of England.
The letter in question was sent her by her aunt, the wife of the
Elector of Hanover, and may serve to give an idea of the boldness of
the opinions entertained by the ladies of high rank in that era, and the
coarseness with which they expressed them : —
" Hanovre, 31 Octobre, 1694.
" Si la viando fait la merde, il est vrai de dire que la merde fait la
viande. . . . Est-ce que dans les tables les plus delicates, la merde
n'y est pas servie en ragouts'! . . . Les boudins, les andouilles, les
saucisses, ne sont-ce pas de ragouts dans des sacs a merde ? "
The letters here spoken of are to be found almost complete in the
Bibliotheca Scatalogica, pages 17-21.
The following appeared in an article headed "The Last Cholera
Epidemic in Paris," in the " General Homoeopathic Journal," vol.
cxiii., page 15, 1886: "The neighbors of an establishment famous
for its excellent bread, pastry, and similar products of luxury, com-
plained again and again of the disgusting smells which prevailed
therein and which penetrated into their dwellings. The appearance
of cholera finally lent force to these complaints, and the sanitary in-
spectors who were sent to investigate the matter found that there was
a connection between the water-closets of these dwellings and the reser-
voir containing the water used in the preparation of the bread. This
connection was cut off at once, but the immediate result thereof was
a perceptible deterioration of the quality of the bread. Chemists have
evidently no difficulty in demonstrating that water impregnated with
' extract of water-closet,' has the peculiar property of causing dough
to rise particularly fine, thereby imparting to bread the nice appear-
ance and pleasant flavor which is the principal quality of luxurious
bread." — (Personal letter from Dr. Gustav Jaeger, Stuttgart, Ger-
many. See page 39.)
EXCKEMENT USED IN FOOD BY SAVAGE TRIBES. 33
VI.
THE EMPLOYMENT OF EXCREMENT IN FOOD BY
SAVAGE TRIBES.
^pHE very earliest accounts of the Indians of Florida and Texas re-
-*• fer to the use of such aliment. Cabeza de Vaca, one of the sur-
vivors of the ill-fated expedition of Paufilo de Narvaez, was a prisoner
among various tribes for many years, and finally, accompanied by
three comrades as wretched as himself, succeeded in traversing the
continent, coming out at Culiacan, on the Pacific Coast, in 153G. His
narrative says that the " Florid ians," "for food, dug roots, and that
they ate spiders, ants' eggs, worms, lizards, salamanders, snakes, earth,
wood, the dung of deer, and many other things."1 The same account,
given in Purchas's "Pilgrims" (vol. iv. lib. 8, cap. 1, sec. 2, p. 1512)
expresses it that " they also eat earth, wood, and whatever they can
get ; the dung of wild beasts." These remarks may be understood as
applying to all tribes seen by this early explorer east of the Rocky
mountains.
Gomara identifies this loathsome diet with a particular tribe, the
" Yaguaces " of Florida. " They eat spiders, ants, worms, lizards of two
kinds, snakes, earth, wood, and ordure of all kinds of wild animals." s
The California Indians were still viler. The German Jesuit, Father
Jacob Baegert, speaking of the Lower Californians (among whom he
resided continuously from 1748 to 17C5), says: —
" They eat the seeds of the pitahaya (giant cactus) which have
passed off undigested from their own stomachs ; they gather their own
1 " lis mangent des araignees, des oeufs de fourmis, des vers, des lezards, des
salamandres, des couleuvres, de la terre, du bois, de la fiente de cerfs, et bien
d'autres choses." — (Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, in "Ternaux," vol. vii. p. 144.)
2 " Coraen aranas, hormigas, gusanos, salamanquesas, lagartijas, culebras, palos,
tierra, y cagajones y cagarrutas." — (Gomara, " Histoiia de las Indias," p. 182.)
He derives his information from the narrative of Vaca. The word "cagajon"
means horse-dung, the dung of mules and asses ; "cagarruta," the dung of sheep,
goats, and mice.
3
3-i SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
excrement, sepnrate the seeds from it, roast, grind, and eat them,
miking merry over the loathsome meal." And again : " In the mis-
sion of Saint Ignatius, . . . there are persons who will attach a piece
of meat to a string and swallow it and pull it out again a dozen times
in succession, for the sake of protracting the enjoyment of its taste." —
(Translation of Dr. Charles F. Rau, in Annual Report, Smithsonian
Institution, 1866, p. 363.)
A similar use of meat tied to a string is understood to have once
been practised by European sailors for the purpose of teasing green
comrades suffering from the agonies of sea-sickness.
(Fuegians.) " One of them immediately coughed up a piece of blub-
ber which he had been eating and gave it to another, who swallowed it
with much ceremony and with a peculiar guttural noise." — ("Voyage
of the Adventure and Beagle," London, 1839, vol. i. p. 315.)
The same information is to be found in Clavigero (" Historia de la
Baja California," Mexico, 1852, p. 24), and in H. H. Bancroft's "Native
Races of the Pacific Slope," vol. i. p. 561 ; both of whom derive from
Father Baegert. Orozco y Berra also has the story ; but he adds that
oftentimes numbers of the Californians would meet and pass the de-
licious t id-bit from mouth to mouth.1
Castaneda alludes to the Californians as a race of naked savages,
who ate their own excrement.11
The Indians of North America, according to Harmon, "boil the
buffalo pauuch with much of its dung adhering to it," — a filthy mode
of cooking which in itself would mean little, 6ince it can be par-
alleled in almost all tribes. But in another paragraph the same
author says : " Many consider a broth made by means of the dung of
the cariboo and the hare to be a dainty dish" (Harmon's "Journal,"
etc., Andover, 1S20, p. 324).8
1 " Algunas veces se juntnn varios Indios y a la redomla va corrienilo el boeado
de uno en otro." — (Orozeo y Berra, " Geografia de las lenguas de Mejico," Mexico,
1854, p. 359.)
2 " Peuple de sauvages qui vont tous ims, et qui mangent leurs propres ordures."
— (Castaneda, in Ternaux, vol. ix. p. 156.)
Castaneda de Nagera accompanied the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coro-
nado, which entered Arizona, New Mexico, and the huffalo country in 1540-1542.
Part of this expedition, under Don Garcia Lope de Cardena, went down the Colo-
rado River, which separates California from Arizona ; while another detachment,
under Melchior Diaz, struck the river closer to its mouth, and crossed into what is
now California.
3 Harmon's notes are of special interest at this point because he is speaking of
the Ta-cully or Carriers, who belong to the same Tinneh stock as the Apaches and
EXCREMENT USED IN FOOD BY SAVAGE TRIBES. 35
The Abbe Domenech asserts the same of the bands near Lake
Superior : " In boiling their wild rice to eat, they mix it with the ex-
crement of rabbits, — a delicacy appreciated by the epicures among
them" (Domenech, " Deserts," vol. ii. p. 311).
Of the negroes of Guinea an old authority relates that they " ate
filthy, stinking elephant's and buffalo's flesh, wherein there is a thou-
sand maggots, and many times stinks like carrion. They eat raw
dogge guts, and never seethe nor roast them " (De Bry, Ind. Orient, in
Purchas's " Pilgrims," vol. ii. p. 905). And another says that the
Mosagueys make themselves a " pottage with milk and fresh dung of
kine, which, mixed together and heat at the fire, they drinke, saying it
makes them strong" (Purchas, lib. 9, cap. 12, sec. 4, p. 1555).
The Peruvians ate their meat and fish raw ; but uothing further is
said by Gomara. " Comen crudo la carne y el pescado " (Gomara,
" Hist, de las Indias," p. 234.)
The savages of Australia "make a sweet and luscious beverage by
mixing taarp with water. Taarp is the excrement of a small green
beetle, wherein the larva? thereof are deposited." — (" The Aborigines
of Victoria and Riverina," P. Beveridge, Melbourne, 1889, p. 126; re-
ceived through the kindness of the Royal Society of Sydney, New
South Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)
" One of them (Snakes), who had seized about nine feet of the en-
trails, was chewing it at oue end, while with his hand he was diligently
clearing his way by discharging the contents of the other. It was in-
deed impossible to see these wretches ravenously feeding on the filth of
animals, and the blood streaming from their mouths, without deploring
how nearly the condition of savages approaches that of the brute crea-
tion." — (Lewis and Clark, quoted by Spencer, " Descriptive Sociology :
« Snakes.' ")
" Some authors have said that all the Hottentots devour the entrails
of beasts, uncleansed of their filth and excrements, and that, whether
sound or rotten, they consider them as the greatest delicacies in the
world ; but this is not true. I have always found that when they
had entrails to eat they turned and stripped them of their filth and
washed them in clear water." — (" Peter Kolben's Voyage to the Cape of
Good Hope," in Knox's "Voyages and Travels," London, 1777, vol. ii.
p. 385.)
Navajoes of Arizona and New Mexico, Lipans of Texas, Umpquas of Washington
Territory, Hoopahs of California, and Slocuss of the head-waters of the Columbia
River.
36 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Atkinson declined to dine with a party of Kirgbis who had killed a
sheep, " having seen the entrails put into the pan after undergoing but
a very slight purification." — ("Siberia," T. W. Atkinson, New York,
18G5, p. 219, and again p. 433.)
" The entrails of animals and other refuse matter thrown overboard
from the English ships is eagerly collected and eaten by the Cochi-
Chiuese, whom Mr. White even accuses of having a predilection for
tilth."— ("Encyc. of Geography," Philadelphia, 1845, vol. ii. p. 397,
article " Farther India.")
(Arabs of the Red Sea.) "The water of Dobelew and Irwee tasted
strongly of musk, from the dung of the goats and antelopes, and the
smell before you drink it is more nauseous than the taste." — ("Trav-
els to discover the Source of the Nile," James Bruce, Dublin, 1790,
vol. i. p. 367.)
From thus enduring water polluted with the excrements of animals
to drinking beverages to which urine has been purposely added, as Sir
Samuel Baker and Colonel Chaille Long show to have been the custom
of the negroes near Goudokoro with their milk, is but a very small
step.
Chaille Long relates that in Central Africa he and his men were
obliged to drink water which was a mixture of the excrements of the
rhinoceros and the elephant (see "Central Africa," New York, 1877,
p. 86). Livingston tells us that the Africans living along the banks of
the Zambesi are careful not to drink except from springs or wells which
they dig in the sand. " During nearly nine months in the year ordure
is deposited around countless villages along the thousands of miles
drained by the Zambesi. When the heavy rains come down and sweep
the vast fetid accumulation into the torrents the water is polluted with
filth" ("Zambesi,"London, 1865, p. 181).
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey reports that he has seen, while among the
Ponkas, " a woman and a child devour the entrails of a beef, with the
contents " (personal letter to Captain Bourke).
Reclus says that the Eastern Inuit eat excrement. " lis ne reculent
pa3 devant les intestins de Tours, pas meme devant ses excrements, et
se jettent avec avidite sur la nourriture mal digeree qu'ils retirent du
ventre des rennes" ("Les Primitifs," Paris, 1885, pp. 31, 32). "Les
Ygarrotes des Philippines, qui versent comme sauce h leur viande crue
le jus des fientes d'un buffle fraichement abattu " (idem, p. 31).
The tribes of Angola, West Africa, cook the entrails of deer without
removing the contents ; this is for the purpose of getting a flavor, as
EXCREMENT USED IN FOOD BY SAVAGE TRIBES. 37
the excrement itself is not eaten ("Muhougo," interpretation by Rev.
Mr. Chatelain).
The Thibetan monk was not to eat entrails. " Me pas manger des
tripes " (" Pratimoksha Sutra," W. W. Rockhill, Soc. Asiatique, Paris,
1885.)
(Tunguses of Siberia.) "They eat up every part of the animal
which they kill, not throwing away even the impurities of the bowels,
with which they make a sort of black pudding by a mixture of blood
and fat." — (Gavrila Sarytschew, in Phillips's " Voyages," London,
1807, vol. v.)
Natives of Eastern Siberia " ate with avidity the entrails of the seal
without cleaning in the least the partly digested food from the intes-
tines, the ordure of the seal being as offensive to civilized man as
the fasces of men or dogs." — (Personal letter from Chief Engineer
Melville, U. S. Navy, to Captain Bourke.)
The Aleuts and Indians from the extreme northern coast of America
with Melville's party displayed the same appetite for the half-digested
contents of the paunches of the seals killed by them. This appetite
was not due to lack of food, as Melville takes care to explain. At
another time he detected his " natives" in the act of eating "plenti-
fully, though covertly, of the droppings of the reindeer" (idem).
38 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
VII.
URINE IN HUMAN FOOD.
CHINOOK OLIVES.
HPHE addition of urine to human food is mentioned by various
-*- writers. Speaking of the Chinooks, Paul Kane describes a deli-
cacy manufactured by some of the Indians among whom he trav-
elled, and called by him " Chinook Olives." They were nothing more
nor less than acorns soaked for five mouths in human urine (see Kane,
"Artist's Wanderings in North America," London, 1859, p. 187).
Spencer copies Kane's story in his " Descriptive Sociology," article
"Chinooks."
" In Queensland, near Darlington, there is a tract of country covered
with a peculiar species of pine, yielding an edible nut of which the
natives are extremely fond. . . . The men would form large clay pans
in the soil, into which they would urinate ; they would then collect
an abundance of these seeds and steep them in the urine. A fermenta-
tion took place, and all the seeds were devoured greedily, the effect
being to cause a temporary madness among the men, — in fact a per-
fect delirium tremens. On these occasions it was dangerous for any one
to approach them. The liquid was not used in any way." — (Personal
letter from John F. Mann, Esq., Neutral Bay, Sydney, New South
Wales.)
This account not only recalls the story told by the artist Kane in
the preceding paragraph, but establishes the fact that in Australia
there is something with a marvellous resemblance to the Ur-Orgie of
the people of Siberia.
Chief Engineer George W. Melville, U. S. Navy, author of " In the
Lena Delta," has had much experience with the natives of Noi-thern
Siberia, among whom it was his misfortune to be cast away. In a per-
sonal letter to Captain Bourke he states that he observed several in-
stances of Siberian women drinking their own or their neighbor's
freshly voided urine. Once, in Sutke Harbor, Saint Lawrence Bay,
URINE IN HUMAN FOOD. 39
uear East Cape, when he " frowned at their unclean and unseemly act,
they seemed very much amused, and after a moment's talk, one of
them voided her urine and another drank it, both being very much
diverted by my disgust." He further relates that when his "natives"
could not obtain from his limited supplies all the alcohol they wanted,
they made a mixture of alcohol and their own urine in equal parts and
drank it down.
" On the morning of the 8th of May, while struggling with an at-
tack of fever, I received a visit from Gilmoro, who brought me a gourd
of milk as an expression of gratitude for saving him at an opportune
moment his position. Burning with fever, I drained at one draught a
goblet full of the foaming liquid ere the sense of taste could detect the
nauseous mixture ; my stomach, however, quickly rebelled, and rejected
in violent retching the unsavory potion, seven eighths of which were
simply the urine of the cow ! — a practice, by the by, common to all
Central Africans, who never drink milk unless thus mixed."
" This fetish and superstition thereby insures protection for the cow
here, as on the Bahr-el Abiad, mysteriously connected with the un-
known, — a shadow possibly of the old Egyptian worship." — (" Central
Africa," Chaille Long, New York, 1877, p. 70.)
URINE IN BREAD-MAKING.
A comparatively late writer says of the Moquis of Arizona : " They
are not as clean in their housekeeping as the Navajoes, and it is hinted
that they sometimes mix their meal with chamber-lye for these festive
occasions ; but I did not know that until I talked with Mormons who
visited them " (J. H. Beadle, " Western Wilds," Cincinnati, Ohio, 1878,
p. 279).
Beadle lived and ate with the Moquis for a number of days. This
story, coming from the Mormons, may refer to some imperfectly under-
stood ceremonial.
There is some ground for suspecting that urine may have been em-
ployed by bakers in Europe prior to the introduction of the " barm "
or ale yeast as a ferment. Ammonia is at the present time made use
of by the Germans in this industry (see page 32).
It is possible that the following account of the manner of eating
blubber among the Patagonians may mean that urine was poured over
it : " He put the same piece on the fire again, and after an addition to
it too offensive to mention, again sucked it " (" Voyage of the Adven-
ture and Beagle," London, 1839, vol. i. p. 343).
40 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
As bearing upon the ingestion of human excreta, which would
seem to excite a natural feeling of revulsion, the following statement
may have some significance : Spencer Saint John, in his " Life in the
Far East," Loudon, 1842, after describing a head feast among the
Dyaks, says that, after certain preliminary rites and amusements,
" they commence eating and drinking ... an extraordinary accumu-
lation, — fowls roasted with their feathers on, eggs black with age,
decayed fruit, rice of all colors and kinds, strong-smelling fish almost
approaching a state of rottenness, and their drink having the appear-
ance and thickness of curds, iu which they mix pepper and other ingredi-
ents. It has a sickening effect upon them, and they swallow it more
as a duty than because they relish it."
Evidently nastiness is an object, since " before they have added any
extraneous matter " this drink " is not unpleasant, having something
the taste of spruce-beer " (p. GG).
If the ceremony in question partakes of the nature of a sacrifice, —
which is not at all certain from the text, in which it is described as an
" entertainment," but which appears probable from its being connected
with the organization and representation of the tribe and from its rela-
tion to head-hunting, — then it may be assumed that the spoiled food
and nauseous drink are perfectly natural features, which have their
counterparts in many places.
As a rule, the more painful, costly, unnatural, and disgusting a rite
is, the more essentially sacrificial is its character, — for obvious
reasons.
Von Stralenburg says of the Koraks that they use the same tubs as
urinals and for the purpose of holding drinking water (see citation on
page 152 of this volume).
HUMAN ORDURE EATEN BY EAST INDIAN FANATICS.
Speaking of the remnants of the Hindu sect of the Aghozis, an Eng-
lish writer observes : —
" In proof of their indifference to worldly objects they eat and drink
whatever is given to them, even ordure and carrion. They smear their
bodies also with excrement, and carry it about with them in a wooden
cup, or skull, either to swallow it, if by so doing they can get a few pice,
or to throw it upon the persons or into the houses of those who refuse
to comply with their demands." — (" Religious Sects of the Hindus,"
in " Asiatic Researches," vol. xvii. p. 205, Calcutta, India, 1832.)
UEIXE IX HUMAN FOOD. 41
Another writer confirms the above. The Abbe Dubois says that the
Gurus, or Indian priests, sometimes, as a mark of favor, present to
their disciples " the water in which they had washed their feet, which
is preserved and sometimes drunk by those who receive it" (Dubois,
"People of India,'' London, 1817, p. G4). This practice, he tells us,
is general among the sectaries of Siva, aud is not uncommon with many
of the Vishnuites in regard to their vashtuma. " Neither is it the most
disgusting of the practices that prevail in that sect of fanatics, as they
are under the reproach of eating as a hallowed morsel the very ordure
that proceeds from their Gurus, and swallowing the water with which
they have rinsed their mouths or washed their faces, with many other
practices equally revolting to nature " (idem, p. 71).
Again, on page 331, Dubois alludes to the Gymnosophists "or
naked Samyasis of India . . . eating human excrement, without show-
ing the slightest symptom of disgust."
As bearing not uuremotely upon this point, the author wishes to say
that in his personal notes and memoranda can be found references to
one of the medicine-men of the Sioux who assured his admirers that
everything about him was "medicine," even his excrement, which
could be transmuted into copper cartridges.
" I was informed that vast numbers of Shordrus drank the water in
which a Brahmin has dipped his foot, and abstain from food in the
morning till this ceremony be over. Some persons do this every
day. . . . Persons may be seen carrying a small quantity of water in a
cup and entreating the first Brahmin they see to put his toe in it. . . .
Some persons keep water thus sanctified in their houses." — (Ward,
quoted by Southey in his " Commonplace Book," Loudon, 1819, 2d
series, p. 521.)
42 SCATALOGIC RITES OK ALL NATIONS.
VIII.
THE ORDURE OF THE GRAND LAMA OF THIBET.
ff^HAT the same disgusting veneration was accorded the person of
the Grand Lama of Thibet, was once generally believed. Malte-
brun asserts it in positive terms : " It is a certain fact that the refuse
excreted from his body is collected with sacred solicitude, to be em-
ployed as amulets and infallible antidotes to disease."
And, quoting from Pallas, book 1, p. 212, he adds: "II est hors de
doute que le contenu de sa chaise percee est devotemeut recueilli ; les
parties solides sont distributes comme des amulettes qu'on porte au
cou ; le liquide est pris interieurement comme une medeciue infalli-
ble." — (Maltebrun, Universal Geography, article " Thibet," vol. ii.
lib. 45, American edition, Philadelphia, 1832.)
The Abbe Hue denies this assertion : " The Tale Lama is venerated
by the Thibetans and the Mongols like a divinity. The influence he
exercises over the Buddhist population is truly astonishing; but still
it is going too far to say that his excrements are carefully collected
and made into amulets, which devotees inclose in pouches and carry
around their necks." — (Hue, " Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and
China," London, 1849, vol. ii. p. 198.)
HUC AND DUBOIS COMPARED.
Hue was a keen and observing traveller ; he was well acquainted
with the languages and customs of the Mongolians ; his tour into
Thibet was replete with incident, and his narrative never flags in
interest. Still, in Thibet he was only a traveller ; the upper classes
of the Buddhist priesthood looked upon him with suspicion. The
lower orders of priesthood and people did seem to consider him as a
Lama from the far East, but he did not succeed in gaining the confi-
dence of the Thibetans to the extent possessed by Dubois among the
Brahminical sects. The history of the latter author is a peculiar one :
A French priest, driven from his native land by the excesses of the
THE ORDURE OF THE GRAND LAMA OF THIBET. 43
revolution, he took refuge in India, devoting himself for nearly twenty
years to missionary labor among the people, with whom he became so
thoroughly identified that when his notes appeared they were pub-
lished at the expense of the British East India Company, and dis-
tributed among its officials as a text-book.
While it is possible to consult earlier authorities, the determination
of this matter should not be allowed to remain in controversy. The
first Europeans known to have penetrated to Thibet (or Barantola, as
they called it) were the Jesuits Grueber and Dorville, who, returning
from China to Europe, walked through Thibet, and down through
India to the sea-coast. This was in 1661 ; another member of the
same order, Father Andrade, claimed to have succeeded in the same
perilous undertaking at an earlier date (1621), but the names of the
cities he visited proves that he did not get beyoud what is now known
as Afghanistan, at the foot of the mountains bordering on Thibet.
While Grueber and Dorville were making their journey, or not many
years after, Father Gerbillon, also a Jesuit, had taken up his abode
among the nomadic Tartars, acquiring an influence with them of
which the Emperor of China was glad to avail himself in emergencies.
Xone of these travellers claimed to have seen the Grand Lama in
person.
" Grueber assures us that the grandees of the kingdom are very
anxious to procure the excrements of this divinity (i. e., the Grand
Lama), which they usually wear about their necks as relics. In an-
other place he says that the Lamas make a great advantage by the
large presents they receive for helping the grandees to some of his
excrements, or urine ; for, by wearing the first about their necks, and
mixing the latter with their victuals, they imagine themselves to be
secure against all bodily infirmities. In confirmation of this, Ger-
billon informs us that the Mongols wear his excrements, pulverized, in
little bags about their necks, as precious relics, capable of preserving
them from all misfortunes, and curing them of all sorts of distempers.
When this Jesuit was on his second journey into Western Tartary, a
deputy from one of the principal lamas offered the emperor's uncle a
certain powder, contained in a little packet of very white paper, neatly
wrapped up in a scarf of very white taffety ; but that prince told him
that as it was not the custom of the Manchews to make use of such
things, he durst not receive it. The author took this powder to be
either some of the Great Lama's excrements, or the ashes of some-
thing that had been used by him." — ("A Description of Thibet,"
44 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
in Piukertou's "Voyages and Travels," London, 1814, vol vii. p.
559).
" Grueber, in his late account of his return from China, a. d. 1661,
by way of Lassa, or Barantola, as Kircher calls it (see Kircher, China
Ulustrata, part ii. c. 1), but Grueber himself Barantaka (where, he
saith, no Christian hath never been). . . above all, he wondered at
their pope (the Grand Lama of Thibet), to whom they give divine
honors, and worship his very excrements, and put them up in golden
boxes, as a most excellent remedy against all mischiefs." — (Stilling-
fleet, " Defence of Discourse concerning Idolatry in Church of Rome,"
London, 1676, pp. 116-120, quoted by H. T. Buckle, in his "Com-
monplace Book," p. 79, vol. ii. of his Works, London, 1872).
Turner, "Embassy to Thibet," London, 1806, makes no reference to
the use of the excrements of the Grand Lama.
Friar Odoric, of Pordenone, visited L'hassa, Thibet, between a. d.
1316 and 1330 (see Markham's edition of Bogle's " Thibet," London,
1879, p. 46). Markham believes that the Jesuit Antonio Andrada,
"in 1624," whom he styles " an undaunted missionary," "found his
way over the lofty passes to Eudok," " climbed the terrific passes
to the source of the Ganges, and eventually, after fearful sufferings,
reached the shores of the sacred lake of Mansorewar, the source of
the Sutlej." — (Introduction to Bogle's " Thibet," Loudon, 1879).
Warren Hastings speaks of the Thibetan priests of high degree,
the " Ku-tchuck-tus," who, he says, "admit a superiority in the Dalai
Lama, so that his excrements are sold as charms, at great price, among
all the Tartar tribes of this religion." — (" Memorandum on Thibet,"
accompanying the instructions to Mr. Bogle, the first English em-
bassador to that country. See in Markham's " Thibet," London,
1879, p. 11.)
It is truly remarkable that neither in the report nor letters of
Bogle, nor in the notes of Manning, nor in the fragments of Grueber,
Desideri, nor Horace Delia Penna, preserved in Markham's "Thibet,"
can any allusion be found to the use of the excrements of the Grand
Lama in religion or medicine.
" Les grands du rovaume " (i. e., of Barantola), " recherchent fort
le8 excrements de cette divinite " (i. e., Lamacongiu). " lis les por-
tent ordinairement a leur col comme des reliques." — (" Voyage de P.
Grueber a Chine," taken from Conversations with P. Grueber. See,
in Thevenot, vol. ii., " Relations de Divers Voyages curieux," Mel-
chisidec Thevenot, Paris, 1696, vol. ii.).
THE ORDURE OF THE GRAND LAMA OF THIBET. 4o
Several authorities from whom much was expected are absolutely
silent.
No mention is to be found in Rubruquis of any use of human ordure
or urine among the Tartars among whom he travelled ; all that he says
is that they baked their bread on cow-dung. This monk, a Franciscan,
was sent by King Louis IX. (Saint Louis), of France, on a mission to
the Grand Khan of Tartary in 1253, in the execution of which office
he travelled for thousands of miles through their territory. In Piu-
kerton it is said : " The travels of Rubruquis are equally astonishiug
in whatever light they are considered. Take them with respect to
length, and they extend upwards of five thousand miles one way and
nearly six thousand another.'' — (Vol. vii. p. 9G.)
During such a long journey he should have been able to notice
much, but we are to bear in mind that the manners of the Tartars of
the Grand Khan were at that time somewhat modified by contact with
European civilization, having among them many prisoners, as Rubru-
quis points out, who officiated as artificers, while, ou the other hand,
we know that the monk was thoroughly ignorant of all their dialects.
Marco Polo, who lived among the Tartars about the same time, says :
" But now the Tartars are mixed and confounded, and so are their
fashions." — (Marco Polo, "Travels," in Piukerton's '• Voyages," Lou-
don, 1SU, vol. vii. p. 124.)
Du Halde, although he gives an account of Thibet in his fourth vol-
ume, and seems to be familiar with all the works ou that country,
mentioning Fathers Grueber and Dorville, yet makes no allusiou to
the use of the excrements of the Grand Lama as amulets or internally.
(See Du Halde's " History of China," London, 1736.) The fault may
lie with his translator in his zeal to "expurgate."
Du Halde, a Jesuit missionary, had the assistance of all the mem-
bers of his order on duty in China ; no less than a score or more aided
him ; one of the number, Father Constancin, had a tour of service in
the Flowery Kingdom, as a missionary, of over thirty-two consecutive
years. During the generation preceding the appearance of Du Halde's
work, the Jesuits had traversed China, Tartary, and Thibet. Taver-
nier, whose opportunities for observation were excellent, asserted the
fact without ambiguity. The excrement of the Graud Lama was care-
fully collected, dried, and in various ways used as a condiment, as a
snuff, and as a medicine.
" The Butan merchants assured Tavernier that they strew his ordure,
powdered, over their victuals." — (Tavernier, "Travels," vol. ii. p. 185.
46 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Footnote to page 559, vol. vii. Pinkerton's "Voyages and Travels,"
London, 1814.)
" Unde tantis venerationis indiciis ab omnibus colitur, ut beatum
ille so reputet, cui Lamarum (quod summis et pretiosis muueribus eum
in finem, nou sine magno eorum lucro corrumpere solent) benignitate
aliquid ex naturalis secessus sordibus aut urina Magna? Lamae obtige-
rit. Ex ejusmodi enim collo portatis, urina qnoque cibis commixta." —
(Letter of Father Adam Schall, S. J., " Aula? Sino-Tartaricaj Supremi
Concilii Mandarin us," in Thevenot, vol. ii. ; Thevenot's second volume
contains three short letters in Latin from Grueber to members of his
order, but in none is there any mention made of the ordure of the
Grand Lama.)
"There is no king in the world more feared and respected by his
subjects than the king of Butan ; being in a manner adored by them.
. . . The merchants assured Tavernier that those about the king pre-
serve his ordure, dry it, and reduce it to powder like snuff; that then
putting it into boxes, they go every market-day and present it to the
chief traders and farmers, who, recompensing them for their great
kindness, carry it home as a great rarity, and when they feast their
friends, strew it upon their meat. The author adds that two of them
showed him their boxes with the powder in them." — (" A Description
of Thibet," in Piukerton, London, 1814, vol. vii. 5G7.)
The expression "king of Butan," as used by Tavernier, means the
Grand Lama of Thibet. Tavernier's statement has been accepted by
the most careful writers. "Iudorum nonnullos, incolas scilicet regni
Boutan Homerda seu excrementis alvinis Regis sui siccatis et pulver-
isatis cibos amicis et couvivis suis appositos condire, refert Johannes
Baptista Tavernier, Itinerar, Indie, lib. 3, cap. 15, fol. m. (Schurig,
" Chylologia," Dresden, 1725, p. 775.) The same paragraph quoted
in the Bibliotheca Scatalogica, pages 29, 93, and 96, to which the
anonymous author adds, " et les Tartares et les Japonais tenaient en
pareille veneration la merde du grand lama et du Dairi."
Rosinus Lentilius, in the Ephemeridum Physico-Medicorum, Leipsig,
1694, speaks of the Grand Lama of Thibet as held in such high venera-
tion by the devotees of his faith that his excrements, carefully col-
lected, dried, powdered, and sold at high prices by the priests, were
used as a sternutatory powder, to induce sneezing, and as a condiment
for their food, and as a remedy for all the graver forms of disease. He
quotes all this from Tavernier, and from Erasmus Franciscus, p. 1662.
There is also another citation from Tavernier, lib. 4, cap. 7.
THE ORDURE OF THE GRAND LAMA OF THIBET. 47
" Xec de rege in Bantam, et eurarao Tangathani Regni Pontifice,
magno Lama, quos tanto in lionore subditi habent ut merda eorum
magno studio collectam, et in pulverem comminutam (quam Brach-
minos aere multo simplicibus divendunt) ill i qnidem scil. Bouta-
menses, loco pulvore nasalis utantur, eoque lautius, victuri cibos
condiant hi vero scil. Tangat haui pro remedio longe presentissimo
ad varios desperatissimosque morbos habeant, aliisque medicamentis
admisceant, per scope memoratum Tavernier, Itin. lib. 3, cap. 15, et
Franciscus, loc. cit. p. 1662.
References to " amulets " among the peoples of Tartary and Thibet
are made by nearly all travellers ; but few seem to have considered it
worth while to determine of what these amulets were composed.
Fathers Grueber and Dorville say of the Kalmuck Tartar women,
"each with a charm about their necks to preserve them from dangers."
These may have been ordure amulets of the Grand Lama.
In his condensation of the travels into Thibet of Fathers Grueber
and Dorville, Piukerton omits what they had to say about these amu-
lets, although in another place, already cited, he refers to it.
(Burats of Siberia.) " I could observe no images among them except
some relics given them by their priests which they had from the Delay-
Lama; these are commouly hung up in a corner of their tents, and
sometimes about their necks, by way of an amulet to preserve them
from misfortunes." (Bell, "Travels in Asia," with the Russian Em-
bassy to China, in 1711, in Piukerton, vol. vii. p. 347). Undoubt-
edly, these were amulets of human ordure, etc., received from the
Grand Lama.
(Kalmucks of Siberia.) "Des pilules beiiites qui viennent du Tibet
meritent attention ; on les appelle Schalir. Les pretres ne les donnent
qu'aux Kalmouks riches ou de distinction ; ils les portent toujours sur
eux, et ils n'en font usage que dans les maladies graves ou la mort
leur parait presqu'inevitable. Ils prdtendent que ces pilules servent a
distraire Fame des choses temporelles, et a la sanctifier : elles sont
noires et de la grosseur d'un pois. Je presumai qu'elles renfermaient
de 1'opium ou autre narcotique ; mais on m'assure an contraire que
leur vertu etait purgatif." — (Voyages de Pallas, Paris, 1793, vol. i.
pp. 567, 568.)
(Mongolia.) "When famous lamas die and their bodies are burnt,
little white pills are reported as found among the ashes, and sold for
large sums to the devout, as being the concentrated virtue of the man
and possessing the power of insuring a happy future for him who
48 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
swallows one near death. This is quite common. I heard of one man
who improved on this by giving out that these little pills were in the
habit of coming out through the skin of various parts of the body.
These pills, called Sharil, met with a ready sale, and then the man
himself reaped the reward of his virtue and did not allow all the profit
to go to his heir." — ("Among the Mongols," Rev. James Gilmour,
London, 1883, p. 231.)
This writer says that these sacred pills are white ; another one,
already noted, describes them as black, while those obtained by the
author from Mr. W. W. Eockhill are red.
Vambery instances one of the holy men of the Tm-komans who,
after reciting a number of sacred verses, " used to place before him a
cup of water into which he spat at the end of each poem, and this com-
position . . . was sold to the best bidder as a wonder-working medi-
cine."—("Travels in Central Asia," New York, 18G5, p. 272.)
Such use of the excrement of ecclesiastical dignitaries was indicated
in Oriental literature. In the "Arabian Nights" King Afrida says to
the Emirs, among other things, "And I purpose this night to sacre
you all with the Holy Incense." When the Emirs heard these words,
they kissed the ground before him. Now the incense which he desig-
nated was the excrement of the Chief Patriarch, the denier, the defiler
of the truth, and they sought for it with such instance, and they so
highly valued it, that the high-priests of the Greeks used to send it
to all the countries of the Christians in silken wraps, after mixing it
with musk and ambergris ; hearing of it, kings would pay a thousand
gold pieces for every dram, and they sent for and sought it to fumi-
gate brides withal ; and the Chief Priests and the Great Kings were
wont to use a little of it as a Collyrium for the eyes, and as a remedy
in sickness and colic ; and the Patriarchs used to mix their own skite
(excrement) with it, for that the skite of the Chief Patriarch would
not suffice for ten countries." — (Burton's edition, vol. ii. pp. 222,
223). In Burton's Index this is called "Holy Merde." Burton also
says, " The idea of the Holy Merde might have been suggested by the
Hindus ; see Mandeville, of the archiprotopapaton (prelate) carrying
ox-dung and cow-urine to the king, who therewith anoints his face
and breast, etc. And, incredible to relate, this is still practised by the
Parsis, one of the most progressive and sharpest-witted of the Asiatic
races." — (Idem.)
Rochefoucauld tells us that we ascribe to others the faults of which
we ourselves would be guilty, had we the opportunity. The Arabians
THE ORDURE OF THE GRAND LAMA OF THIBET. 49
no doubt were fully acquainted with just such customs ; possibly, the
Greeks also.
The Kalmucks believe in spirits or genii called " Bourkans," and in
a maleficent one known as " Erlik-khan." They tell a story of three
of these " Bourkans," one of them being Sakya-Muni : " fitant un
jour assis ensemble, firent leurs prieres dans la plus grande ferveur,
ayant les yeux fermes, ainsi que cela se pratique chez les Kalmouks,
le genie infernal s'approche d'eux, et fit ses ordures daus la coupe
sacree que les pretres ont devant eux lorsqu'ils font la priere. Des
que les dieux s'en apeVcurent, ils tiurent conseil. lis conclurent que
s'ils repandoient cette matiere venimeuse dans les airs, ils feroieut
perir tous les habitants de cet Element ; et que s'ils la jetoient sur
la terre, ils feroient mourir tous les etres vivans qui l'occupent. Ils
resolurent done, pour le bien de l'humanite, de l'avaler. Sakya-Muni
eut pour sa part le fond de la coupe ; le levain etoit si fort que son
visage devint tout bleu. C'est la raison pour laquelle ou lui peint la
figure en bleu dans les images ; ses idoles ont seulement le bonnet
vcruisse en bleu." — (Voyages de Pallas, Paris, 1793, vol. i. p. 548).
This is a lame explanation, invented by the Lamas after men had
become somewhat refined, and had begun to evince a repugnance to
these diabolical usages. Compare with the notes presented by Mr.
W. W. Rockhill, the Oriental scholar and Thibetan explorer, on p. 37.
The following is from a manuscript by Mr. W. W. Rockhill, entitled
" The Lamaist Ceremony called the Making of the Mani Pills : " —
" Certain indestructible particles of the bodies of the Buddhas and
saints, as well as certain other bodily remains, have ever been consid-
ered by Buddhists to enjoy certain properties, such as that of emitting
light, and of having great curative properties. The travels of Huein-
Tsang and of Fa-lisien are filled with accounts of the discovery of
such treasures, and of the supernatural properties which they pos-
sessed. Among Thibetans, the first class of these relics is known
as 'pedung' (upel-gedung), the second as 'dung-rus' (gdung-rus).
They say the pedung are minute globules found in the bones of
Buddhas and saints, that they possess wonderful brilliancy, and that
sometimes they may be seen on the exterior of some saintly person,
when they have the appearance of brilliant drops of sweat. While
these pedung have most potent curative properties, they become also
the palladium of the locality fortunate enough to have them. By a
natural extension of the idea of the power of pedung, Thibetans have
come to think that if one preserves and carries about on one's person
4
50 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
even a little of the excretions, or of the hair or nail-trimmings of a
saint who is known to have pedung, such, for instance, as the Tale-
Lama, or the Panehan-Rimpoehe, they will shield him from gun or
sword wounds, sickness, etc. ; hence the extraordinary objects one so
often finds in Thibetan charm-boxes (Ka-Wo).
"The properties of pedung have also given rise to another belief,
with which this paper is more properly concerned, — that of manufac-
turing pills, to which the god Shourizog, at the supplication of the
officiating lamas, imparts the properties of his own divine body, and
then imparts to them the curative and protective properties of real
pedung. These pills are known as mani-rilbu, or ' precious pills,'
and are in constant use as medicine among the people of Thibet and
Mongolia. Large quantities of them are also sent by each tribute-
bearing minion to the Emperor of China. In Chinese, they are called
' Tsu-mu-yas,' or ' thih-ma-yao,' and must not be confounded with a
liliaceous plant of same name (Hanbury's Anemarhena afphodeloides),
the rhizome of which is used in medicine, and which is also a product
of Thibet.
"Perhaps the better name for 'mani-rilbu' is ' tzu-sheng-wan,'
' dilated pills,' which I have heard used for them in Pekiu, as will be
better seen after reading the following account of the manner in
which they are manufactured.
" The greater part of the account here given of the process of
making the pills is taken from a Thibetan work containing a minute
account of the ceremony, together with the prayers to be recited, etc.,
the title of which is ' Ceremony of Making Mani Pills ' (Mani Kilbu
grub gi choga), in seven leaves.
" Verbal explanations from the lamas who explained the text to me
are incorporated wherever necessary.
" Seven days prior to the commencement of the ceremony the lama
who is to conduct it and the priests who are to take part in it com-
mence to abstain from the use of meat, spirits, garlic, tobacco, and
other articles of food held impure, or which are bad-smelling, and
during the progress of the ceremony, which is twenty-one, forty-nine,
or one hundred days in length, none of the above articles are allowed
in the temple, nor are unclean persons or those who are partaking of
the above prohibited substances.
" The ceremony begins by making the pills, and the process is de-
scribed, in the work mentioned above, as follows : " The Lama, his
head clean-shaved, and his vestments being as they should be, grinds
THE ORDURE OF THE GRAND LAMA OF THIBET. 51
into fine flour some roasted grain, then mixing it with pure and sweet-
scented water, he makes the necessary amount of paste ; the pills are
then made and coated over with red. When all this has been done, a
vase is taken which is dry and without any flaw or blemish, aud which
is also perfectly clean, and in it the pills are poured until it is two-
thirds full. The vase is then wrapped in a silk cover, which is tied on
with a silk thread, and scaled. The vase, after this, is put on a
stand, in a perfectly upright position, and around the latter are
arranged bowls of water and other offerings, two by two. The most
revered image of Tug-je-chon-po (i. e., Shouresig) which the lamasery
possesses is then clothed in its robes, and placed on top of the vase;
then, without shaking the vase, a dorje (a marginal note explains that
this is the Thunder-bolt or Sadjra of Indra : it is in constant use in
all the Lamaist ceremonies, and is generally held in the right hand,
between the thumb and index, while prayers are being read. In the
left hand the lama usually holds a bell), wrapped in a clean piece of
cotton or woollen stuff, is tied to the string around the neck of the
vase. After an interval of meditation and prayer, offerings are made of
' water, flowers, incense, lamps, perfumes, food, etc., . . . while music
plays.' Then the help of the god is invoked ' to impart the necessary
virtues to the pills, ... for this world is sunk in sin and iniquity,
and Shouresig alone can help it, and drag it out of the mire.' As a
means thereto he is now besought, in his great mercifulness, to bless
these pills, so that the}' may free from the orb of transmigration those
who shall have attained maturity of mind,' to impart to them by
absorption the peculiar flavor of his resplendent person, so that they
may become indistinguishable from it, like water poured into water,
etc., etc.
" This ceremony, which is a most expensive one, and most trying
on the Lamas, is not at all common in the Lamaseries of China or
Mongolia, and is confined to the larger one in Thibet ; the only one
at Pekin, where it is sometimes performed, is the Shih-fang-tang, to
the west of the Hsi-huang-tsu, outside of the north side of the city."
The above ceremony describes a symbolical alvine dejection, and the
most plausible explanation is, that the lamas, finding trade good and
the Buddhist laity willing to accept more "amulets" than the Grand
Lama was able, unaided, to supply, hit upon this truly miraculous
mode of replenishing their stock.
Mr. Rockhill explains that the word " pedung," used in the above
description, meaus " remains." Taking into consideration the fact
52 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
that these people, although remotely, are related to the Aryan stock,
which is the ancestor of the English, German, Irish, Latin, and others,
from which we spring, the meaning, as here given, is certainly not
without significance. "Dung," in our own tongue, means nothing
more nor less than remains, reliquiae of a certain kind.
Webster traces the word " dung " to the Anglo-Saxon dung, dyncg,
diucg, — excrement ; Dyngan, to dung ; N. H. German, dung, dunger j
O. H. German, Tunga ; Sw. Dyuga ; Danish, Dynge and Dyngd ; Ice-
landic, Dyngia and Dy. This shows it to be essentially Indo-Germanic
in type, and fairly to be compared with the words " pedung " and
"dung-rus" of Mr. Rockhill's manuscript.
In the country of Ur of the Chaldees, which was the home of Abra-
ham (Gen. xi. 2), there reigned a king, "the father of Dungi.". The
exact meaning of the name " Dungi " has not been made known. The
name of the king himself, strangely enough, was " Urea," or " Uri," —
it is read both ways. His date has been fixed at 3,000 years B. c.
The information in preceding paragraph was furnished by Prof. Otis
T. Mason, of the National Museum, Washington, D. C.
Lenormant makes him out as of high antiquity, — "the most an-
cient of the Babylonian kings," " kings who can vie in antiquity with
the builders of the Egyptian pyramids, — Dungi, for instance." —
(" Chaldean Magic," p. 333.)
Smith ascribes him to the date of at least 2,000 b. c. — (" Assyrian
Discoveries," New York, 1876, p. 232.)
Mr. W. W. Rockhill, for six years secretary of the Legation of the
United States, in Pekin, is a member of the Oriental Society, and a
scholar of the highest attainments, more particularly in all that re-
lates to the languages, customs, and religions of China and Thibet, in
which countries he has travelled extensively.
The sacred pills presented by him to the author were enclosed in a
silver reliquary, elaborately chased and ornamented ; in size they were
about as large as quail-shot ; their color was almost orange, or between
that and an ochreous red.
Through the kindness of Surgeon-General John Moore, U. S. Army,
they were analyzed by Dr. Mew, U. S. Army, with the following
results : —
"April 18, 1889.
"I have at length found time to examine the Grand Lama's ordure,
and write to say that I find nothing at all remarkable in it. He had
been feeding on a farinaceous diet, for I found by the microscope a large
THE ORDURE OF THE GRAND LAMA OF THIBET. 53
amount of undigested starch in the field, the preseuce of which I veri-
fied by the usual iodine test, which gave an abundant reaction.
" There was also present much cellulose, or what appealed to be cel-
lulose, from which I infer that the flour used (which was that of wheat)
was of a coarse quality, and probably not made in Minnesota.
" A slight reaction for biliary matter seemed to show that there was
no obstruction of the bile ducts. These tests about used up the four
very small pills of the Lama's ordure.
" Very respectfully and sincerely yours,
(Signed) "W. M. Mew."
54 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
IX.
THE STERCORANISTES.
rT,HAT Christian polemics have not been entirely free from such
"*" ideas may he shown satisfactorily to any one having the leisure to
examine the various phases of the discussion upon the doctrine of the
Eucharist.
The word " stercoranistes," or "stercorarians," is not to be found
in the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica ; but in the edition
of 1841 the definition of the word is as follows: "Stercorarians, or
Stercoranistes, formed from slercus, 'dung,' a name which those of the
Romish church originally gave to such as held that the host was liable
to digestion and all its consequences, like other food." This definition
was copied verbatim in Rees's Cyclopaedia of Arts, Sciences, and Litera-
ture, Philadelphia.
The dispute upon " Stercoranisme " began in 831, upon the appear-
ance of a theological treatise by a monk named Paschasius Radbert. —
(See the " Institutes of Ecclesiastical History," John Lawrence von
Mosheim, translated by John Murdock, D.D., New Haven, 1832, vol. ii.
p. 104 et seq.)
" The grossly sensual conception of the presence of the Lord's body
in the sacrament, according to which that body is eaten, digested, and
evacuated like ordinary food, is of ancient standing, though not found
in Origen, nor perhaps in Rhabanus Maurus. It certainly originated
with a class of false teachers contemporary with or earlier than Rha-
banus Maurus, whom Paschasius Radbert condemns, — ' Frivolum est
ergo in hoc mysterio cogitare in stercore ne commisceatur in digestione
alterius cibi " (De Corp. et Sanguin. Domin. cap. 20). He does not,
however, apply the term " Stercoranistes" to his opponents. Cardinal
Humbert is the first to so employ the word. This use was in a polemic
against Nicetas Pectoratus, written in support of Azymitism, etc.
From this source the word was adopted into common usage. — (Schrockli
Kirchengesch. XXIII. ? 429, 499 ; Herzog, Real Eucyclop, s. v. ; Mc-
THE STERCORANISTES. 55
CTmtook aud Strong, Cyclop, of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical
Literature, New York, 1880; see also Schaff-Herzog, " Cyclopaedia of
Religious Knowledge," New York, 1881, article " Stercoranistes.")
(Stercoranistes.) (Hist. Eccles.) " Nom que quelques eenvains out
domic a ceux qui peusoient que les symboles eucharistiques etoieut
sujets a la digestion et a toutes ses suites de meme que les autres uour-
ritures corporelles. . . . Ce mot est derive du Latin, ' stercus,' excre-
ment. On ne couvieut pas generalement de l'existence de cette erreur.
Le president Manguin l'attribue a Amalaire, auteur du neuviime siecle.
. . . Et le cardinal Humbert dans sa reponse a Nicetas Pectoratus,
l'appelle nettement stercoraniste, purceque celui-ci pretendoit que la
perception de l'hostie rompoit le jcuue. Enfin, Alger attribue la meme
erreur aux Grecs. Mais ces accusations ne paroissent pas fondees, car ;
. . . Amalaire propose a la verite* la question si les especes eucharis-
tiques se consument comme les aliments ordinaires; mais, il ne la de-
cide pas. Nicetas pretend aussi que l'Eucharistique rompt le jeune,
soit qu'il reste dans les especes quelque vertu nutritive, soit parce
qu'apres avoir reou l'Eucharistique, ou peut prendre autres aliments ;
mais, il ne paroit pas avoir admis la consequence que lui impute le
Cardinal Humbert. II ne paroit pas non plus que les autres Grecs
soient tombes dans cette erreur. S. Jean Damascene les en disculpe.
Mais, soit que le Stercoranisme ait existe ou non, les protestans n'en
peuvent tirer aucun avantage contre la presence reele, que cette erreur
suppose plutot qu'elle ne l'ebranle." — (Voyez M. Wuitaas, traite de
l'Eucharistie, premiere partie, quest. 2, art. 1 ; p. 41G et suiv. Ency-
clop. ou Diction. Raissou. des Sciences, des Arts, et des Metiers, tome
quinzieme, Xeufchatel, 1765, art. "Stercoranistes.")
" Si qui fuerunt, fuere nonnulli nouo s*culo, qui Corpus Christi
quod in Eucharistia continetur secessui, ac defectioni obnoxium esse
putabat ita ut corruptis speciebus et ipsum Corpus Christi corrumpera-
tur." — ("Diet, of Sects and Heresies," etc., T. H. Blunt, Oxford,
1S74, where a number of references are given.)
" Stercorantistarum, nomen non sectse, sed convitii fuit." — (Baro
nius, " Annales," Lucca, 1758.
Stercoranisme. Stercoranistes. Stercus. " Membre d'une secte
qui soutenait que les especes de l'Eucharistie etaient digerees et trans-
formees en excrement comme les autres aliments" (Encyclop.).
"On a designe dans le XIX. siecle sous le nom de Stercoranistes, les
thcologiens qui niaient que la substance du pain et du vin fut chaugee
dans l'Eucharistie au corps et au sang de Jesus Christ."
56 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
"Tout ce qui entre dans la bouche, descend la ventre et va au
retrait."
" Pretendirent que si le corps et le sang de Jesus Christ, avaient
pris la place de la substance du pain et du vin, ils devraient subir les
memes accidents qui seraient arrives a cette substance si elle avait e^e
recue par le comniuniaut." — (P. Lerousse, " Grand Dictionnaire Uni-
versel," Paris, 1875.)
Brand, in his "Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature, and Art," article
" Stercoranistn," says : "A nickname which seems to have been ap-
plied in the Western churches in the fifth and sixth centuries to those
who held the opinion that a change took place in the consecrated ele-
ments, so as to render the divine body subject to the act of diges-
tion." He refers to Mosheiui's " Ecclesiastical History " for a fuller
account.
The same ideas obtained among the illiterate as a matter of course.
The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ seems to have been
received by the Gnostics of the second century as canonical, and ac-
cepted in the same sense by Eusebius, Athanasius, Chrysostom, and
others of the Fathers and writers of the Church. Sozomen was told
by travellers in Egypt that they had heard in that country of the
miracles performed by the water in which the infant Jesus had been
washed. According to Ahmed ben Idris, this gospel was used in parts
of the East in common with the other gospels ; while Ocobius de Cas-
tro asserts that in many churches of Asia and Africa it was recited ex-
clusively. (See Introduction to the " Apocryphal New Testament,"
William Hone, London, 1820.) But, on the other hand, all the apoc-
rypha were condemned by Pope Gelasius in the fifth century; and
this interdict was not repealed until the time of Paul IV. in the six-
teenth century. — (See Bunsen, " Analecta," Hamburg, 1703.)
In the following extracts it will be noted that the miracles recorded
were wrought either by the swaddling-clothes themselves or by the
water in which they had been cleansed ; and the inference is
that the excreta of Christ were believed, as in many other instances,
to have the character of a panacea, as well as generally miraculous
properties.
The Madonna gave one of the swaddling clothes of Christ to the
Wise Men of the East who visited him ; they took it home, " and hav-
ing, according to the custom of their country, made a fire, they wor-
shipped it. . . . And casting the swaddling cloth into the fire, the fire
took it and kept it" (1 Inf. iii. 6, 7).
THE STERCORANISTES. 57
We read of the Finnish deity Waiueraoinen that " the sweat which
dropped from his body was a balm for all diseases." The very same
virtues were possessed by the sweat of the Egyptian god Ra (" Chal-
dean Magic," Lenormant, p. 247, quoting the Kalewala, part 2,
r. 14).
On arrival in Egypt after the Flight — " When the Lady Saint Mary
had washed the swaddling clothes of the Lord Christ and hanged them
out to dry upon a post ... a certain boy . . . possessed with the
devil, took down one of them and put it upon his head. And pres-
ently the devils began to come out of his mouth and fly away in the
shape of crows and serpents. And from this time the boy was healed
by the power of the Lord Christ." — (I Inf. iv. 15, 16, 17.)
" On the return journey from Egypt, Christ had healed by a kiss a
lady whom cursed Satan . . . had leaped upon ... in the form of a
serpeut. On the morrow, the same woman brought perfumed water
to wash the Lord Jesus ; when she had washed him, she preserved the
water. And there was a girl whose body was white with leprosy, who
being sprinkled with this water was instantly cleansed from her lep-
rosy."—(1 Inf. vi. 16, 17).
There is another example of exactly the same kind in 1 Inf. vi. 34.
See, again, 1 Inf. ix. 1, 4, 5, 9 ; x. 2, 3; xii. 4, 5, 6. "And in Matarea
the Lord Jesus caused a well to spring forth, in which Saint Mary
washed his coat. And a balsam is produced or grown in that country
from the sweat which ran down there from the Lord Jesus." - — (Oospel
of the Infancy, viii. : " The Apocryphal New Testament," William
Hone, London, 1820, p. 47.)
"In Ireland, weakly children are taken to drink the ablution, that
is, the water and wine with which the chalice is rinsed after the priest
has taken the communion, — the efficacy arising from the cup having
just before contained the body of our Lord." (See " Folk-Medicine,"
Black, London, 1883, p. 88.) The same cure was also in vogue in Eng-
land, and in each case for the whooping-cough.
This has all the appearance of a commingling of two separate streams
of thought; compare with it the notes on the expression from Juve-
nal, " Priapo ille bibit vitreo," page 428, as well as those in regard to
the canons of Beauvais on page 429.
" An offshoot of the Khlysti, known as the " Shakouni," or Jumpers,
openly professed debauchery and libertinism to excess . . . Others of
their rites are abject and disgusting; their chief is the living Christ,
and their communion consists in embracing his body, — ordinary dis-
58 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
ciples may kiss his hand or his foot ; to those of a more fervent piety,
he offers his tongue." — ("The Russian Church and Russian Dis-
sent," Albert F. Heard, New York and London, 1887, pp. 261—
262.)
The subjoiued extract is from " Melusine " (Gaidoz) Paris, May 5,
1888.
UN DALAI-LAMA IRLANDAIS.
" A 1' occasion des reliques journalieres du Dalai-Lama dont on fait
des pilules pour les devots, histoire que les imprimeurs de cette Revue
n'avaient pas voulu 'avaler' (voir plus haut, col. 24) Mr. Wh. Stokes
nous a signale un curieux passage des annales irlandaises. Nous croy-
ons interessant de le traduire ici. Cet 'acte de foi ' se passait en l'an
G05, et le heros en est le roi Aedh, surnomme Uairidlmach.1
" Un jour il passa, n'etant encore que prince royale, par le territoire
d'Othaiu-Muira ; il lava ses mains a la riviere qui traversa le terri-
toire de la ville. Othaiu est le nom de la riviere, et c'est de la que la
ville a son nom. II prit de l'eau pour s'en laver la figure. Un de ses
gens l'arreta. 'Roi, dit-il, ne mets pas cette eau sur ton visage.'
' Quoi done?' dit le roi. 'J'ai honte de le dire,' dit-il. 'Quelle honte
as-tu a, dire la verite? dit le roi. 'Voici ce que c'est,' dit-il; 'c'est
sur cette eau que se trouve le water-closet des clercs.' ' Est-ce ici,
que vient le clerc lui-meme ' (c'est a dire le chef des clercs) ' pour se
soulager ? '
" ' C'est ici meme,' dit le page. ' Non seulement,' dit le roi, ' je mettrai
cette eau sur ma figure, mais j'en mettrai dans ma bouche, et j'eu
boirai ' (et il en but trois gorgees) ; ' car l'eau oil il se soulage vaut pour
moi l'eucharistie.'
" Cela fut raconte a Muira (le chef des clercs), et il rendit graces k
Dieu de ce que Aedh avait uue semblable foi ; et il appela aupres de
lui Aedh et il lui dit : ' Cher fils, en recompense de ce respect que tu
as moutre a l'Eglise, je te promets, en presence de Dieu, que tu ob-
tiendras bientot la royaute' d'Irlande, que tu auras vietoire et tri-
omphe sur tes ennemis, que tu ne mourras pas de mort subite,2 que tu
recevras le corps de Christ de ma main, et je prierai le Seigneur pour
toi, pour que ce soit la vieillesse qui t'enleve de cette vie.'
1 Lit. "de la maladie froide ;" voy. O'Donovan, "Annals of the Four Mastei-s,"
note a l'annee 601, t. 1. p. 228.
a La mort subite est regardee eomme le plus grand malheur, paree qu'elle ne
laisse pas le temps de se confesser et de recevoir l'absolution de ses peches.
THE STERC0RAXISTE3. 59
" Ce fut peu de temps apres cela qu 'Aedh obtiut la royaute d'Irlande
et il douna des terres fertiles a Muira d'Othain.1
"Comme le lecteur ne manquera pas de le remarquer, c'est par edifi-
cation que 1'anualiste, clerc lui-rueine, raconte cette histoire. Eu efl'et,
elle fait honneur a la piete du roi et elle prouve que ' le respect montre a
l'Eglise ... a obtenu sa recompense.' Ce qui vieut des hommes de
Dieu participe en effet au caractere sacre de Dieu qu'ils representent.
"Si l'ou cherchait a eteudre cette enquete de scatologie hieratique on
trouverait sans doute bien des croyances et des pratiques repuguantes
a uotre gout de civilises, mais raisonables en un sens quand on accepte
le point de depart, quand on ne condamne pas la logique, et surtout
quand on se rappelle que le degout pour lea re'sidus de la digestion
n'est devenu iustiuctif que pour la vie civilisee et les habitudes sociales.
Les peuples qui ne se lavent pas doiveut certainement seutir autreinent
que nous, et merne ne pas seutir du tout ; et nos aucetres de 1 age des
cavernes n'avaient certainement l'odorat plus difficile. On assure que
chez les Nauias, tribu hotteutote, le shaman qui celebre un manage
asperge les conjoints de son urine. Cela remplace notre eau benite.
Le shaman est en effet ' un homme de Dieu,' par excellence ; car,
lorsqu'il se livre a ces dances desordouue'es qui sont une partio du
culte, on croit que le dieu descend en lui, non en esprit, mais eu realite.
"C'est aussi le cas de rappeler un usage linguistique dea habitants de
Samoa dans la Polyuesie. Lorsq'une femme est sur le point d'accou-
cher, on adresse des prieres au dieu ou genie de la braille du pere et
a celui de la famille de la mere. Quand l'enfant est ne, la mere de-
mande quel dieu ou etait en train de prier a ce moment. On en preud
soigneusement note et ce dieu sera en quelque sorte le " patron " de
l'enfant peudant le reste de sa vie.
" Par respect pour ce dieu, l'enfant est appele son excrement et pen-
daut son eufance on l'appelle reellement, comme 'petit-nom,' ' m
de Tongo,' ou de Satia, ou de tout autre dieu, suivant le cas. La
formule est grossiere, mais l'iutention, sous une apparence tout niate-
rielle, part d'un sentiment de respect et de piete a l'egard de la
divinite.
The last two paragraphs of the above are taken from the work of
the missionary Turner, who lived for seventeen years in the islands of
1 O'Donovan, "Three Fragments of Irish Annals," Dublin, 1860, pp. 10-12.
The bodies of Indian chiefs in Venezuela were incinerated, the ashes drunk in native
liquor. " Tuestanlo, muelenlo, y echado en vino lo beben y esto es gran honra.' —
Gomara, " Historia de las Indias," p. 203.
60 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Polynesia; they appear in his " Samoa," London, 1884, p. 79. But in
the same book, issued under the title "Polynesia," London, 1861, it
has been expunged.
The mother of the King of Uganda invited Speke to visit her and
drink ponibe, the native plantain wine ; when she happened to spill
some of this the servants " instantly fought over it, dabbing their
noses on the ground, or grabbing it with their hands, that not one
atom of the queen's favor might be lost ; for everything must be
adored that comes from royalty, whether by design or accident."
(Speke, "Nile," London, 186.3, vol. ii. p. 313.) This is the Grand
Lama business over again and nothing else.
The people of Madagascar have an annual feast of the greatest solem-
nity, during which no cattle are allowed to be slaughtered ; " which
means that none can be eaten, as meat will not keep twenty-four hours
in Madagascar." This festival is called " The Queen's Bath," and is
arranged with much parade. "When the water was warm the queen
stepped down and entered the curtained space. In a few moments
salvos of artillery announced to the people that the queen was taking
her bath. In a few minutes more she reappeared, sumptuously clothed
with jewels. She carried a horn tilled with the bath-water, with which
she sprinkled the company." — (Evening Star," Washington, D. C,
quoting from " Transcript," Boston, Massachusetts.)
That the ruler of a tribe or nation is in some manner connected with
and representative of the deities adored by the tribe or nation, is a form
of man-worship presenting its most perfect manifestation in the rever-
ence accorded the Grand Lama ; but no part of the world has been free
from it, and among our own forefathers it obstinately held its ground
in the opinion so long prevalent all over Europe that the touch of the
king's hand would cure the scrofula. This remedial potency was also
ascribed to women in a certain condition.
" Scrofulous sores were believed by some to be cured by the touch
of a menstruating woman." — (Pliny, Bonn's edition, lib. 28, cap.
24.)
" The Hindu wife is in Paradise compared to the Hindu widow. The
condition of the wife is bad enough. As the slave of her husband, she
eats after he is through, and she eats what is left. She has no educa-
tion to speak of, and her only hope of salvation is in him. She stands
while he sits in the household ; and she cannot, if she lives in the inte-
rior, go to the Ganges and bathe herself in the sacred water. I am
told that in many cases she considers it a privilege to bathe her hus-
THE STERCORANISTES. 61
baud's feet after he returns, and thinks that she gets some absolution
from sin by drinking the water." — (Frank G. Carpenter, in " World,"
New York, June 30, 1889.)
" Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, possessed the power of curing individuals
attacked by enlarged spleen by simply pressing his right foot upon that
viscera." — (" The Physicians of the Middle Ages,' T. C. Minor, M.D.,
Cincinnati, Ohio, 1889, p. 5. A trauslation of " Le Moyen Age Medi-
cale," of Dr. Edmond Dupouy.)
62 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
THE BACCHIC ORGIES OF THE GREEKS.
T^HE Bacchic orgies of the Greeks, while not strictly assimilated to
the ur-orgies, can scarcely be overlooked in this connection.
Montfaucon describes the Omophagi of the Greeks : " Les Omopha-
gies etoient une fete des Grecs qui passoient la fnreur Bacchique ;
ils s'entortilloient, dit Arnobe, de serpeus et mangeoient des entrailles
de Cabri crues, dont ils avaient la bouche toute ensanglantee ; cela
est exprimee par le nom Omophage. Nous avons vu quelquefois des
homines tons entortillez de serpens et particulieremeut dans Mithras."
— (Montfaucon, " L'Antiquite expliquee," tome 2, book 4, p. 22.)
The references to serpent-worship are curious, in view of the fact
that such ophic rites still are celebrated among the Mokis, the next-
door neighbors of the Zunis, and once existed among the Zufiis them-
selves. The allusion to Mithras would seem to imply that these orgies
must have been known to the Persians as well as the Greeks.
Bryant, speaking of the Greek orgies, uses this language : " Both in
the orgies of Bacchus and in the rites of Ceres, as well as of other
deities, one part of the mysteries consisted in a ceremony (omophagia),
at which time they ate the flesh quite crude with the blood. In Crete,
at the Dionisiaca, they used to tear the flesh with their teeth from the
animal when alive." — (Bryant, "Mythology," London, 1775, vol. ii.
p. 12.)
And again, on p. 13 : "The Mrenules and Baccha? used to devour
the raw limbs of animals which they had cut or torn asunder. . . .
In the island of Chios it was a religious custom to tear a man limb
from limb, by way of sacrifice to Dionysius. From all which we may
learn one sad truth, that there is scarce anything so impious and un-
natural as not, at times, to have prevailed." — (Idem.)
Faber tells us that : " The Cretans had an annual festival . . .
in their frenzy they tore a living bull with their teeth, and bran-
dished serpents in their hands." — (Faber, " Pagan Idolatry," London,
1816, vol ii. p. 265.)
THE BACCHIC ORGIES OF THE GREEKS. C3
BACCHIC ORGIES IN NORTH AMERICA.
These orgies were duplicated among many of the tribes of North
America. Paul Kane describes the inauguration of C'lea-clach, a
Clallum chief (northwest coast of British America) : " He seized a
small dog and began devouring it alive." He also bit pieces from the
shoulders of the male by-standers. — (See " Artist's Wanderings in
North America," London, 1859, p. 212 ; also, the same thing quoted by
Herbert Spencer in " Descriptive Sociology.")
Speaking of these ceremonies, Dr. Franz Boas says : " Members of
tribes practising the Hamatsa ceremonies show remarkable scars pro-
duced by biting. At certain festivals it is the duty of the Hamatsa to
bite a piece of flesh out of the arms, leg, or breast of a man." (" Report
on the North-Western Indians of Canada," in "Proceedings of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science," Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Meeting, 1889, p. 12.) Doctor Boas demonstrates that the actions of
the Hamatsa are an example of Ritualistic Cannibalism. (See idem,
p. 55.) And, speaking of the secret societies observed among the
Indians of the British northwest coast, he remarks that each has its
own ceremonies. "The Nutlematl must be as filthy as possible." —
(Idem, p. 54.)
" Bernardin do Saint Pierre, in his ' Etudes de la Nature ' gives it as
his opinion that to eat dog's-flcsh is the first step towards cannibalism,
and certainly, when I enumerate to myself the peoples whom I visited
who actually, more or less, devoured human flesh, and find that among
them dogs were invariably considered a delicacy, I cannot but believe
that there is some truth in the hypothesis." (Schweinfurth, " Heart
of Africa," London, 1872, vol. i. p. 191.) The Clallums, no doubt, in
their frenzies, tore dogs to pieces as a substitute for the human victim
of an earlier period in their culture.
Baucroft describes like orgies among the Chimsyans, of British North
America. (See in " Native Races of the Pacific Slope," vol. i. p. 171.)
While the Nootkas medicine men are said to have au orgy in which
" live dogs and dead human bodies are seized and torn by their teeth ;
but, at least in later times, they seem not to attack the living, and
their performances are somewhat less horrible and bloody than the
wild orgies of the Northern tribes." — (Idem, vol. i. p. 202.)
The Haidahs, of the same coast, indulge in an orgy in which the
performer " snatches up the first dog he can find, kills him, and tear-
ing pieces of his flesh, eats them." — (Dall, quoting Dawson, in " Masks
64 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
and Labrets," Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washing-
ton, D. C, 1880.)
In describing the six secret soldier societies or bands of the Mandans,
Maximilian, of Wied, calls attention to the three leaders of one band,
who were called dogs, who are " obliged, if any one throws a piece of
meat into the ashes or on the ground, saying, ' There, dog, eat,' to fall
upon it and devour it raw, like dogs or beasts of prey." — (Maximilian,
Prince of Wied, "Travels," &c, London, 1843, pp. 356, 446.)
A further multiplication of references is unnecessary. The above
would appear to be enough to establish the existence of almost identi-
cal orgies in Europe, America, and Asia — orgies in which were per-
petuated the ritualistic use of foods no longer employed by the popu-
lace, and possibly commemorating a former condition of cannibalism.
THE SACRIFICE OF THE DOG A SUBSTITUTION FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE.
It would add much to the bulk of this chapter to show that the dog
has almost invariably been employed as a substitute for man in sacri-
fice. Other animals have performed the same vicarious office, but nono
to the same extent, especially among the more savage races. To the
American Indians and other peoples of a corresponding stage of devel-
opment, the substitution presents no logical incongruity. Their reli-
gious conceptions are so strongly tinged with zoolatry that the assign-
ment of animals to the role of deities or of victims is the most natural
thing in the world ; but their belief is not limited to the idea that the
animal is sacred ; it comprehends, additionally, a settled appreciation of
the fact that lycanthropy is possible, and that the medicine-men pos-
sess the power of transforming men into animals or animals into men.
Such a belief was expressed to the writer in the most forcible way, in
the village of Zuni, in 1881. The Indians were engaged in some one
of their countless dances and ceremonies( and possibly not very far
from the time of the urine dance), when the dancers seized a small
dog and tore it limb from limb, venting upon it every torture that
savage spite and malignity could devise. The explanation given was
that the hapless cur was a " Navajo," a tribe to which the Zunis
have been spasmodically hostile for generations, and from whose ranks
the fortunes of war must have enabled them to drag an occasional cap-
tive to be put to the torture and sacrificed.
Mrs. Eastman describes the " Dog Dance " of the Sioux, in which
the dogs represented Chippewas, and had their hearts eaten raw by
the Sioux.
POISONOUS MUSHKOOMS USED IN UR-OKGIES. 65
XI.
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UR-ORGIES.
rPHE Indians in and around Cape Flattery, on the Pacific coast of
-*• British North America, retain the urine dance in an unusually
repulsive form. As was learned from Mr. Kennard, U. S. Coast Sur-
vey, whom the writer had the pleasure of meeting in Washington, D.C.,
in 1880, the medicine men distil, from potatoes and other ingredients,
a vile liquor, which has an irritating and exciting effect upon the
kidneys and bladder. Each one who has partaken of this dish imme-
diately urinates and passes the result to his next neighbor, who drinks.
The effect is as above, and likewise a temporary insanity or delirium,
during which all sorts of mad capers are carried on. The last man who
quaffs the poison, distilled through the persons of five or six comrades,
is so completely overcome that he falls in a dead stupor.
Precisely the same use of a poisonous fungus has been described
among the natives of the Pacific coast of Siberia, according to the
learned Dr. J. W. Kingsley (of Brome Hall, Scole, England). Such a
rite is outlined by Schultze. " The Shamans of Siberia drink a decoc-
tion of toad-stools or the urine of those who have become narcotized by
that plant," — (Schultze, " Fetichism," New York, 1885, p. 52.)
The Ur-Orgy of the natives of Siberia should be found full}- de-
scribed by explorers in the employ of the Russian Government. Ap-
plication was accordingly made by the author to the Hon. Lambert Tree,
the American Minister at the Court of St. Petersburgh, who evinced a
warm interest in the work of unearthing from the Imperial archives
all that bore upon the use of the mushroom as a urino-intoxicant.
Unfortunately, the official term of Mr. Tree having expired, no in-
formation was obtained from him in time for incorporation iu these
pages.
Acknowledgment is due in this connection to Mr. Wurtz, the Ameri-
can Charge d' Affaires at St. Petersburgh, as well as to his Excellency
the Russian Minister of Public Instruction, for courteous interest
5
06 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
manifested in the investigations made necessary by the amplification
of the original pamphlet.
Conferences were also had with his Excellency the Chinese Minister
and with Dr. H. T. Allen, Secretary of the Coreau Legation, in Wash-
ington, but beyond developing the fact that in the minor medicine of
those countries resort was still had to excrementitious curatives, the
information deduced was meagre and unimportant.
Dependence was therefore necessarily placed upon the accounts of
American or English explorers of undisputed authority.
George Kenuau describes a wedding which he saw in one of the vil-
lages of Kamtchatka : "After the conclusion of the ceremony we re-
moved to an adjacent tent, and were surprised as we came out into the
open air to see three or four Koraks shouting and reeling in an ad-
vanced stage of intoxication, — celebrating, I suppose, the happy wed-
ding which had just transpired. I knew that there was not a drop of
alcoholic liquor in all Northern Kamtchatka, nor, so far as I knew,
anything from which it could be made, and it was a mystery to me
how they had succeeded in becoming so suddenly, thoroughly, hope-
less^', undeniably drunk. Eveu Ross Browne's beloved Washoe, with
its ' howling wilderness ' saloons, could not have turned out more
creditable specimens of intoxicated humanity than those before us.
" The exciting agent, whatever it might be, was certainly as quick
in its operation and as effective in its results as any ' tanglefoot ' or
' bottled lightning ' known to modern civilization.
" Upon inquiry, we learned to our astonishment that they had been
eating a species of the plant vulgarly known as 'toadstool.' There is
a peculiar fungus of this class in Siberia, known to the natives as ' muk-
a-rnoor,' and as it possesses active intoxicating properties, it is used as
a stimulant by nearly all the Siberian tribes.
" Taken in large doses, it is a violent narcotic poison, but in small
doses it produces all the effects of alcoholic liquor.
" Its habitual use, however, completely shatters the nervous system,
and its sale by Russian traders to the natives has consequently been
made a penal offence by the Russian law. In spite of all prohibitions
the trade is still secretly carried on, and I have seen twenty dollars'
worth of furs bought with a single fungus.
" The Koraks would gather it for themselves, but it requires the
shelter of timber for its growth, and is not to be found on the barreu
steppes over which they wander ; so that they are obliged for the most
part to buy it at enormous prices from the Russian traders. It may
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UR-ORGIES. 67
sound straDgely to American ears, but the invitation which a convivial
Korak extends to his passing friend is not ' Come in and have a drink,'
but ' Won't you come in and take a toadstool ? ' — not a very alluring
proposal perhaps to a civilized toper, but one which has a magical
effect upon a dissipated Korak. As the supply of these toadstools is
by no means equal to the demand, Korak ingenuity has been greatly
exercised in the endeavor to economize the precious stimulant and
make it go as far as possible.
" Sometimes iu the course of human events it becomes imperatively
necessary that a whole band should get drunk together, and they have
only one toadstool to do it with. For a description of the manner in
which this band gets drunk collectively and individually upon one
fungus, and keeps drunk for a week, the curious reader is referred to
Goldsmith's ' A Citizen of the World,' Letter 32.
" It is but just to say, however, that this horrible practice is almost
entirely confined to the settled Koraks of Peuzshink Gulf, — the
lowest, most degraded portion of the whole tribe. It may prevail to
a limited extent among the wandering natives, but I never heard of
more than one such instance outside the Penzshink Gulf settlements."
— ("Tent Life in Siberia," George Kennan, New York and London,
1887, pp. 202-204.)
Oliver Goldsmith speaks of " a curious custom " among " the Tartars
of Koraki. . . . The Russians who trade with them carry thither a
kind of mushroom. . . . These mushrooms the rich Tartars lay up in
large quantities for the winter ; and when a nobleman makes a mush-
room feast all the neighbors around are invited. The mushrooms are
prepared by boiling, by which the water acquires an intoxicating quali-
ity, and is a sort of drink which the Tartars prize beyond all other.
When the nobility and ladies are assembled, and the ceremonies
usual between people of distinction over, the mushroom broth goes
freely round, and they laugh, talk double-entendres, grow fuddled, aud
become excellent company. The poorer sort, who love mushroom
broth to distraction as well as the rich, but cannot afford it at first
hand, post themselves on these occasions round the huts of the rich,
and watch the opportunity of the ladies and gentlemen as they come
down to pass their liquor, and holding a wooden bowl, catch the deli-
cious fluid, very little altered by filtration, being still strongly tinc-
tured with the intoxicating quality. Of this they drink with the
utmost satisfaction, and thus they get as drunk and as jovial as their
betters.
G8 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" ' Happy nobility ! ' cried my companion, ' who can fear no diminu-
tion of respect unless seized with strangury, aud who when drunk, are
most useful ! Though we have not this custom among us, I foresee
that if it were introduced, we might have many a toad-eater in Eng-
land ready to drink from the wooden bowl on these occasions, and to
praise the flavor of his lordship's liquor. As we have different classes
of gentry, who knows but we may see a lord holding the bowl to the min-
ister, a knight holding it to his lordship, and a simple squire drinking
it double-distilled from the loins of knighthood]'" — (Oliver Gold-
smith, "Letters from a Citizen of the World," No. 32. This is based
upon Philip Van Stralenburgh's " Histori-Geographical Description of
the North and Eastern Part of Europe and Asia," London, 173G,
p. 397.)
" The Amanita muscaria possesses an intoxicating property, and is
employed by Northern nations as an inebriant. The following is the
account of Langsdorf, as given by Greville : —
"This variety of Amanita muscaria is used by the inhabitants of
the northeastern parts of Asia in the same manner as wine, brandy,
arrack, opium, etc., is by other nations. Such fungi are found most
plentifully about Wischna, Kamtchatka, and Willowa Derecona, and
are very abundant in some seasons, and scarce in others. They are
collected in the hottest months, and hung up by a string to dry in the
air; some dry themselves on the ground, and are said to be far more
narcotic than those artificially preserved. Small, deep-colored speci-
mens, deeply covered with warts, are also said to be more powerful
than those of a larger size and paler color.
" The usual mode of taking the fungus is to roll it up like a bolus
and swallow it without chewing, which the Kamtchkadales say would
disorder the stomach.
"It is sometimes eaten fresh in soups and sauces, and then loses
much of its intoxicating property. When steeped in the juice of the
berries of the Vaccinum uliginosum, its effects are those of a strong wine.
One large and two small fungi are a common dose to produce a pleasant
intoxication for a whole day, particularly if water be drunk after it,
which augments the narcotic principle.
" The desired effect comes in from one to two hours after taking the
fungus. Giddiness and drunkenness result in the same manner as
from wine or spirits; cheerful emotions of the mind are first produced,
the countenance becomes flushed, involuntary words and actions fol-
low, and sometimes at last an entire loss of consciousness. It renders
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN' UR-0RGIE8. 69
some remarkably active, and proves highly stimulating to muscular
exertion. By too large a dose violent spasmodic effects are produced.
So verv exciting to the nervous system in some individuals is this
fungus that the effects are often very ludicrous. If a person under its
influence wishes to step over a straw or a small stick, he takes a stride
or a jump sufficient to clear the trunk of a tree. A talkative person
cannot keep silence or secrets, and one fund of music is perpetually
singing.
" The most singular effect of the Amanita is the influence it possesses
over the urine. It is said that from time immemorial the inhabitants
have known that the fungus imparts an intoxicating quality to that
secretion, which continues for a considerable time after taking it. For
instance, a man moderately intoxicated to-day will by the next morn-
ing have slept himself sober; but (as is the custom) by taking a cup
of his urine he will be more powerfully intoxicated than he was the pre-
ceding day. It is therefore not uncommon for confirmed drunkards to
preserve their urine as a precious liquor against a scarcity of the
fungus.
" The iutoxicatiug property of the urine is capable of being propa-
gated, for every one who partakes of it has his urine similarly affected.
Thus with a very few Amanita; a party of drunkards may keep up
their debauch for a week. Dr. Laugsdorf mentions that bv means of
the second person taking the urine of the first, the third of the second,
and so on, the intoxication may be propagated through five individuals."
— (English Cyclop., London, 1854, vol ii., " Natural History," article
" Fungi." London : Bradbury and Evans.)
" They make feasts when one village entertains another, either upon
account of a wedding, or having had a plentiful fishing or hunting.
The landlords entertain their guests with great bowls of opouga, till
they are all set a-vomiting ; sometimes they use a liquor made of a
large mushroom, with which the Russians kill flies. This they prepare
with the juice of epilobium or French willow. The first symptom of a
man being affected with this liquor is a trembling in all his joints, and
in half an hour he begins to rave as if in a fever ; and is either merry
or melancholy mad according to his peculiar constitution. Some jump,
dance, and sing ; others weep and are in terrible agonies, a small hole
appearing to them as a great pit, and a spoonful of water as a lake ;
but this is to be understood of those who take it to excess; for, taken
in small quantity, it raises their spirits, and makes them brisk, cour-
ageous, aud cheerful-
70 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
"It is observed whenever they have eaten of this plant, they main-
tain that whatever foolish things they did, they only obeyed the com-
mands of the mushroom ; however, the use of it is so dangerous that
unless they were well looked after, it would be the destruction of num-
bers of them. The Kamtchadales do not much care to relate these
drunken frolics, and perhaps the continual use of it renders it less
dangerous to them. One of our Cossacks resolved to eat of this mush-
room in order to surprise his comrades, and this he actually did ; but
it was with great difficulty they preserved his life. Another of the
inhabitants of Kamtchatka, by the use of this mushroom, imagined
that he was upon the brink of hell ready to be thrown in, and that the
mushroom ordered him to fall on his knees and make a full confession
of all the sins he could remember, which he did before a great num-
ber of his comrades, to their no small diversion. It is related that a
soldier of the garrison, having eaten a little of this mushroom, walked
a great way without any fatigue ; but at last, having taken too great a
quantity, he died.
" My interpreter drank some of this juice without knowing of it, and
became so mad that it was with difficulty we kept him from ripping
open his belly, being, as he said, ordered to do so by the mushroom.
" The Kamtchadales and the Koreki eat of it when they resolve to
murder anybody ; and it is in such esteem among the Koreki that they
do not allow any one that is drunk with it to make water upon the
ground, but they give him a vessel to save his urine in, which they
drink ; and it has the same effect as the mushroom itself.
"Xone of this mushroom grows in their country, so that they are
obliged to purchase it of the Kamtchadales. Three or four of them
are a moderate dose, but when they want to get drunk they take ten.
The women never use it, so that all their merriment consists in
jestiug, dancing, and singing." — ("The History of Kamtchatka and
the Kurile Islands," by James Grieve, M. D., Gloucester, England,
1764, pp. 207-209.)
" I do not think that the urine would keep very long, and decom-
position would destroy the Amanitine, which I believe to be the intoxi-
cating principle. If I remember aright, it has been obtained as an
alkaloid." — (Personal letter from Dr. J. W. Kingsley, Cambridge,
England, dated Aug. 18, 1888.)
" If the Yakut was a good and loving spouse, he would go directly
home and eject the contents of his stomach into a vessel of water,
which then he placed out of doors to cool and collect ; and from the
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UE-ORGIES. 71
rich, floating vomit his wife and children would afterwards enjoy a
hearty meal. The lucky possessor of a stomach full of Vodki may, in
a benevolent mood, similarly dispose of a part of his repletion, minus
the water, and away to the Eastward, among the Tchuchees, families
are often regaled even to inebriation with the natural fluid discharge
from the bodies of fortunate tipplers. . . . Saving the natives them-
selves it is their most disgusting institution, and if any Christian mis-
sionary be earnestly seeking a fresh field to labor in, I can assure him
that no soil is more desperately in need of cultivation than the Tchuchee
Country." — ("In the Lena Delta," George W. Melville, Chief Engi-
neer, U. S. Navy, Boston, Massachusetts, 1885, page 318.)
" Amanita muscaria has been employed as fly-poison, whence its vul-
gar name. M. Poquet states that climate does not modify its poisonous
qualities. The Czar Alexis died from eating it, yet the Kamtchatkans
eat it, or are said to do so, as also the Russians. In Siberia, it is used as
an intoxicating agent. Cook says it is taken as a bolus, and that its
effects combine those pi'oduced by alcohol and haschish. The property
is imparted to the fluid secretion (urine) of rendering it intoxicating,
which property it retains for a considerable time. A man, having
been intoxicated on one day and slept himself sober the next, will, by
drinking this liquor to the extent of about a cupful, become as much
intoxicated as he was before. . . . Urine is preserved in Siberia to this
end. . . . The intoxicating property may be communicated to any person
who partakes ... to the third, fourth, and even fifth distillation." —
(M. C. Cook, "British Fungi," Loudon, 1882, pp. 21, 22.)
Henry Lamsdell ("Through Siberia," London, 1882, vol. ii. p. 615)
describes the " fly agaric." He says that it is used by the Koraks to
produce intoxication. " So powerful is the fungus that the native who
eats it remains drunk for several days ; and by a process too disgusting
to be described, half a dozen individuals may be successively intoxi-
cated by the effects of a single mushroom, each in a less degree than
his predecessor."
"The Koraks prepare the 'muk-a-moor' by steeping it. In a few
minutes the fortunate ones get thoroughly intoxicated, and imbibe to
such an extent that they are forced to relieve themselves of the super-
fluity, on which occasions the poorer people stand prepared with bowls
to catch the liquid, which they quaff, aud, in turn, become intoxicated.
In this manner, a whole settlement will sometimes get drunk from
liquor consumed by one individual." — (Richard J. Bush, " Reindeer
Dogs and Suow-Shoes," London, no date, p. 357.)
72 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIOXS.
Salverte gives two pages to a description of the effects of the " fly
agaric " or " rnucha-more " of the Russians ; he shows how it leads men
to the commission of murder, suicide, and other excesses, but makes
no allusion to the drinking of urine, although he quotes from Gmeliu,
Krachenuinikof and Beniowski, all of whom must have had some ac-
quaintance with its peculiar properties. According to Salverte the use
of this fungus might well be referred to the category of Sacred Intoxi-
cants. — (See " Philosophy of Magic," Eusebe Salverte, New York, 18G2,
vol. ii. pp. 19, 20.)
" Before the conquest, they seldom used anything for drink but
water, but when they made merry they drank water which had stood
for some time upon mushrooms ; but of this more hereafter." — (" His-
tory of Kamtchatka and the Kurile Islands," James Grieve, M. D.,
Gloucester, England, 1764, p. 195.)
See previous citation from the same author.
A mere reference to the trade carried on by the Russians and Kamt-
chadales with the Koraks in Agaricus muscarius is to be found in
" Langsdorf's Voyages," London, 1814, vol. ii. p. 318. " It is said that
the sort of mushroom which they procure from Kamtchadales is pre-
ferred by them as a means of exhilaration or intoxication to brandy."
(Idem, p. 320.) He adds: "Some remarks of mine upon this sub-
ject will be found in the Annals of the Society for promoting the
Knowledge of Natural History." — (Idem, p. 321.)
" The use of the intoxicating fungus in Siberia, and that of the urine
flavored by it, is mentioned in Steller's ' History of Kamtchatka,'
which is, I believe, the earliest and best authority in reference to it."
— (Personal letter from Hon. John S. Hittell, San Francisco, April
24, 1888.)
Although Grieve's account is, in the main, derived from Steller,
every effort was made to find the latter author and examine his own
language. The copy belonging to the Library of Congress had been mis-
laid, and it was not possible to find it ; but the extensive Arctic Li-
brary of General A. W. Greely, U. S. Army, the polar explorer, was
most kindly placed at the author's disposal, and there the long-coveted
volume was, translated by Mr. Bunnemeyer, to whom the warmest
acknowledgments are due.
George William Steller was born March 10, 1709, at Winsheim.
In 1734, he went to Russia, where he became an adjunct and mem-
ber of The Imperial Academy of Sciences. In 1758, he was dele-
gated to explore Kamtchatka, especially its natural history. After
POISONOUS MUSHKOOMS USED IX UR-ORGIES. 73
completing the task and making voyages to various other regions,
he attempted twice to return to St. Petersburgh, but each time re-
ceived orders to return to Irkutsk to answer charges there brought
against him. He did not reach Irkutsk the second time, but was frozen
to death while his guard entered a way-side inn, and was buried at
Tumen, in November, 1746. The following are his remarks about
poisonous mushrooms : " Among the Champignons, the poisonous toad-
stool, called mucha-moor in Russian, is held in greatest esteem. At
the Russian ostrag it has long ago fallen into disfavor, but is used so
much the more in the vicinity of the Tzil and towards the Korakian
boundary. This mushroom is dried and swallowed in large pieces with-
out mastication, followed by large draughts of cold water. In the
course of half an hour, raging drunkenness and strange hallucina-
tions result. The Korakiaus and Jukagiri are still more addicted to
this vice, and buy the fungus from the Russians whenever they can.
Those too poor to do so collect the urine of those under the influence
of the drug and drink it, which makes them equally as drunk and
raging.
" The urine is equally effective to the fourth and fifth man. Rein-
deer frequently devour these mushrooms with great avidity, becoming
drunk and wild, and finally fall into a deep sleep. When found in this
state, it is not killed until the effects of the drug have passed away, as
otherwise its meat when eaten will cause the same frenzied intoxica-
tion as the mushroom itself."
"The dance and custom you describe as existing among the Sibe-
rians I know nothing of. I neither saw nor heard of it. I do not
think there is any of the mushroom species in the Tchuktchi country.
The land is absolutely barren. I lived in the tents of that people for
seven or eight months, and they never paid any attention to me as a
stranger, in the way of hiding their customs from me. They would
have their drumming and medicine performances before me, just as
though I was one of them. The custom you allude to may prevail
among the Yakouts and Tchuktchi, nevertheless, but I think it mure
probable that it exists with the Northwest tribes, such as the Samo-
yeds or Osjaks." — (Personal letter from the Arctic explorer, W. II.
Gilder, author of " Scbwatka's Search," etc., dated New York,
Oct. 15, 1889.)
"Captain Healey, of the revenue cutter 'Bear,' brought to this
place, last autumn, a shipwrecked seaman, who had been rescued by
the Siberian Tchuktchis, with whom he remained some two years.
74 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
He described their mode of making an intoxicating liquor thus : in
the summer, mushrooms or fungi were collected in large quantity, and
eaten by a man who, like our Indians, prepared himself by fasting for
the feast. After eating enormous quantities of the fungi, he vomited
into a receptacle, and again loaded up, time and again, and disgorged
the stuff in a semi-fermented or half-digested condition. It was swal-
lowed by those who were waiting for the drink ; and his urine was
also imbibed, to aid in producing a debauch, resulting in frenzied
intoxication." — (Personal letter from Surgeon B. J. D. Irwin, U. S.
army, dated San Francisco, Cal., April 28, 1888.)
" The seaman, J. B. Vincent, whom I found with the Tchuktchi last
summer, says that they collect in their tents a species of fungi, and
during their carnival season, corresponding to about our Christmas
holidays, one man is selected, who masticates a quantity of it, and
drinks an enormous supply of water ; he then gets into his deer's
team, and is driven from camp to camp, repeating the mastication and
drinking at each camp, where his urine is drunk by the people witli
an effect of intoxication. The arrival of this man is hailed with
much pomp and ceremony by the people. The seaman, Vincent,
witnessed several of these ceremonies, and was pressed to join in the
orgies, being called 'a boy,' when he declined to sustain his part." —
(Personal letter from Capt. M. A. Healey, U. S. R. M. Steamer
"Bear," dated San Francisco, Cal., May 19, 1888.)
Kamtchadales. — " These people formerly had no other drink than
water, and to make themselves a little lively they used to drink an
infusion of mushrooms." — ("From Paris to Pekiu," Meiguan, Lon-
don, 1885, p. 281.)
D'Auteroche, who made a journey from St. Peterslmrgh to Tobolsk
in Siberia, in compliance with an invitation from the Empress Cath-
erine, in the middle of the last century, to observe the transit of
Venus, makes no mention of the mushroom-orgies of the natives.
His work was not of much value, in an ethnological sense, being
largely restricted to descriptions of the mineral resources of the regions
traversed, and only to a slight degree attending to the ethnology of
the country.
It is strange that Maltebrun, although familiar with Steller, does
not refer to the mushroom orgy. He does say of the Kamtchadales :
"In summer, the women go into the woods to gather vegetables, and
during this occupation they give way to a libertiue frenzy like that
TOISOXOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UR-ORGIES. 75
of the ancient Bacchantes." — (" Universal Geography," American
edition, Boston, Mass., 1847, vol. i. p. 347, article "Siberia.")
Stanley's "Congo," New York, 1885, was examined carefully, but
no reference to any use of urine or ordure was found in it.
An identical experience was had with the " Voyages " of John
Strays, translated out of the Dutch, by John Morrison, London, 1G83,
and with Nordjenskold's Voyages, translated by Horgaard, London,
1882.
As the two latter travellers had entered Siberia, it seemed probable
that they might have come upon traces of the Ur-orgies of some of
the wild tribes like the Koraks, Tchuktchi, and others.
Salverte's opinion that this use of the mushroom may be included
in the category of Sacred Intoxicants, is shown to be accurate by
a comparison with the statement made by the shipwrecked sailor,
Vincent, who undoubtedly may be accepted as the most competent
witness who has ever presented himself.
According to him, there was a man "selected," who "prepared
himself by fasting ; " the " feast " took place " during their carnival
season," "corresponding to about our Christmas holidays" (i. e., the
winter solstice), and there was much attendant "pomp and ceremony."
Add to this the statement made by Grieve, " they maintain that what-
ever foolish things they did, they only obeyed the commands of the
mushroom," and we have the needed Personification to prove that
the fungus was reverenced as a deity, much as on another page will
be shown that certain African tribes apotheosized a member of the
same vegetable family.
If not for Sacred Intoxication, then the question may be asked, For
what reason did the Siberians and others use the poisonous fungus?
The only answer possible is, that, in the absence of the cereals and
under the pressure of a desire for stimulants, the aborigines resorted
to all kinds of vegetable substances, as can be shown to have been the
case from the history of many nations. Mythology is replete with
examples of the occult virtues of plauts, such as the mandrake
aud many others.
Certainly, the religious veneration with which they were regarded
was not more fully deserved than by this wonderful toxic, — the Ama-
nita muscaria. The thirst for stimulants has been very generally
diffused all over the world ; there is no reason to believe that any
tribe has existed without an occasional use of something of the kind.
According to the Chinese, an alcoholic liquor called " Tsew " was
7G SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
invented by Etoih, in the reign of To-ke, 2197 before the Christian
era. See " Chinese Repository," Canton, 1841, vol. x. p. 126.
Mr. John MoElhone, the stenographer of the House of Representa-
tives and a scholar of no mean attainments, stated to the author that
he remembered having read in an old volume, the name of which he
could not recall, of a feast given some centuries ago at the coronation
of one of the kings of Hungary, at which the nobles were regaled
with the rarest wines, but the plebeians were content to drink the
resulting urine. There may be in Hungary, whether we regard it as
peopled by the Hun-oi, or, later, by the Turkish element, an infusion
of the same race-traits as are to be found at this day in Kamtchatka
and other portions of Siberia.
Salverte speaks of the intoxicating effects of the " muk-a-moor," but
enters into no particulars. (See " Philosophy of Magic," Eusebe
Salverte, New York, 1882, vol. ii. p. 19.)
The people of Kamtchatka make intoxicants out of certain herbs.
(Steller, " Kamtchatka," translated by Mr. Bunnemeyer.) And we
are further told that, while the people are gathering these herbs, much
prostitution prevails, and everywhere there are willing girls in the
grass.
"The settled Koraks" of Kamtchatka, " eat the intoxicating Siberian
toadstool in inordinate quantities ; and this habit alone will in time
debase and brutalize any body of men to the last degree." — (" Tent
Life in Siberia," George Kennan, twelfth edition, New York, 1887,
p. 23.3.)
No allusion to the use of mushrooms as an intoxicant can be found
in Saner, " Expedition to the North Parts of Russia," London, 18C2.
Henry Seebohm ("Siberia in Asia," Loudon, 18S2) makes no mention
of the urine-orgies of the inhabitants.
THE MUSHROOM DRINK OF THE BORGIE WELL.
The following paragraph deserves more than a passing mention : —
" The Borgie well, at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, is credited with
making mad those who drink from it ; according to the local rhyme,
' A drink of the Borgie, a bite of the weed,
Sets a' the Cam'slang folk wrang in the head.'
The weed is the weedy fungi." — (" Eolk-Medicine," Black, Loudon,
1883, p. 104.)
rOISOXOUS MUSHROOOMS USED IN CR-ORGIES. 7.
Camden says that the Irish " delight in herbs, . . . especially
cresses, mushrooms, and roots." — (" Britannia," edition of London,
1753, vol. ii. p. 1422.)
Other references to the Siberian fungus are inserted to afford stu-
dents the fullest possible opportunity to understand all that was
available to the author himself on this point.
" Agaricus muscarius is one of the most injurious, yet it is used as a
means of intoxication by the Kamtchadales. One or two of them are
sufficient to produce a slight intoxication, which is peculiar in its char-
acter. It stimulates the muscular powers and greatly excites the
nervous system, leading the partakers into the most ridiculous ex-
travagances."-— (American Cyclopaedia, New York, 1881, article
" Fungi.")
Agaricus muscarius. " This is the ' mouche-more ' of the Russians,
Kamtchadales, and Koriars, who use it for intoxication. They some-
times eat it dry, and sometimes immerse it in a liquor made with the
epilobinm, and when they drink this liquor they are seized with con-
vulsions in all their limbs, followed by that kind of raving which at-
tends a burning fever. They personify this mushroom, and if they
are urged by its effects to suicide or any dreadful crime, they pretend
to obey its commands. To fit themselves for premeditated assassina-
tion they recur to the use of the ' mouche-more.' A powder of the
root, or of that part of the stem which is covered by the earth, is recom-
mended in epileptic cases, and externally applied for dissipating hard,
globular swellings and for healing ulcers." — (Cyclopaedia, Philadelphia,
no date, Samuel Bradford, vol. i. article " Agaric")
"One of the most poisonous species of the genus is the 'fly agaric,'
so named because the fungus is often steeped and the solution used for
the destruction of the house-flv. ... It is as attractive and as
poisonous as it is beautiful. In Kamtchatka, it is highly prized for its
poisonous properties, producing, as it does, in the eater a peculiar in-
toxication. The fungus is gathered and dried ; and when a native
wishes to engage in a debauch, he has but to swallow a piece, when in
a few hours he will be in his glory." — (Johnson's New Universal Cyclo-
pedia, New York, 1878, article "Mushroom.")
Poisonous fungi. " Several of this natural order are poisonous, es-
pecially those belonging to the genera Amanita and Agaricus. . . .
The sufferers are often relieved by vomiting." — (Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, edition of 1841, article " Medical Jurisprudence," vol. xiv. pp. 506,
507.) Speaking of the poisonous fungi, the same authority says :
78 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
"The effects are singularly various, . . . among them being giddiness,
confusion, delirium, stupor, coma, and convulsions." — (Idem, vol. xviii.
p. 178, article "Poison.")
" The boletus mentioned by Juvenal on account of the death of the
Emperor Claudius." — (Cyclopaedia, Philadelphia, no date, vol. xxv.
article "Mushroom.")
There are several allusions to the custom of poisoning with mush-
rooms to be found in Juvenal, — for example, in the first and fifth
satires.
Tacitus says that when Claudius was poisoned the poison " was
poured into a dish of mushrooms." — (" Annals," Oxford translation,
Bohn, London, 1871, lib. 12.)
After the Emperor Claudius had been poisoned by mushrooms given
by his wife Messalina, the Emperor Nero, his successor, was wont to
call the boletus " the food of the gods." (See footnote to Rev. Lewis
Evans's translation of the sixth satire of Juvenal, p. 64, edition of New
York, 1800, citing Suetonius's " Nero " Tacitus's "Annals," and Mar-
tial's "Epigrams," I. epistle XXI.)
Plutarch says that it was a common opinion that " thunder engen-
ders mushrooms." — ("Morals," Goodwin's English edition, Boston,
1870, vol. hi. p. 298.)
Gilder, who crossed over Siberia from Behring's Straits to St. Peters-
burgh, stopping en. route with many of the wild tribes, makes no allu-
sion to the use of the " muck-a-moor " or to any Ur-orgy. (See
" Ice-pack and Tundra," New York, 1883.)
"The Agaricus mutscarius is used by the natives of Kamtchatka
and Korea to produce intoxication." — (Ure's "Dictionary of Arts,
Manufactures, and Mines," London, 1878, vol. ii. article "Fungi.")
" Their reputation as aphrodisiacs is thought to be unfounded,
having its origin in the old doctrine of resemblances." (American
Cyclopaedia, New York, 1881, article "Fungi.") Probably from the
appearance of the "phallus" fungus.
There seems to have been some superstition attaching to the elder
dating from very remote times. It is said in Gerrard's " Herbal,"
Johnson's edition, page 1428, " that the arbor Judce is thought to be
that whereon Judas hanged himself, and not upon the elder-tree, as is
vulgarly said." I am clear that the mushrooms or excrescences of the
elder-tree, called auricuke Judce in Latin, and commonly rendered
" Jew's-ears," ought to be translated " Judas's-ears," from the popular
superstition above mentioned. Coles, in his " Adam in Eden," speak-
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UR-OEGIES. 79
ing of " Jew's-ears," says : " It is called in Latin Fungus Savibucin-um
and Auriculce Jw/ce, some having supposed the elder-tree to he that
whereon Judas hanged himself, and that ever since these mushrooms
like unto ears have grown thereon, which I will not persuade you to
believe." In " Paradoxical Assertions," is a silly question, — " why
Jews are said to stink naturally. Is it because the 'Jew's ears' grow
on stinking elder, which tree the fox-headed Judas was supposed to
have hanged himself on, so that natural stink hath been entailed on
them and their posterity as it were ex traduce ? The elder seems to
have been given in the time of Queen Elizabeth as a token of
disgrace. It was credited with the power to cure epilepsy, to
strengthen the loins of men, especially in riding, as it prevented all
gall and chafing, etc., and had additionally the property of making
horses stale." — (Brand, " Popular Antiquities," Loudou, 1872, vol. iii.
p. 283, article " Physical Charms.")
Sambucus (elder) is mentioned by Frommann as a remedy for epi-
lepsy.— (" Tractatus de Fascinatione," Nuremberg, 1G75, p. 270.)
Have we not a right to inquire why in primitive pharmacy certain
remedies were employed? The principle of similia similibus is very
old and deeply rooted. Perhaps the fungus of the elder may have
once been employed in inducing intoxication and frenzy.
"The Ostiaks, the Kamtchadales, and other inhabitants of Asiatic
Ptussia, find in one of the gild-bearing family — the Amanita vuiscaria
— the exhilaration and madness that more civilized nations demand and
receive of alcohol, and enjoy a narcotism from its extracts as seductive
as that of opium. The Fiji Islanders are indebted to toadstools strung on
a string for girdles which alone prevent them from being classed among
the ' poor and naked,' and their sole {esthetic occupation lies in orna-
menting their limited wardrobe. The Fiji fishermen especially value
them highly because they are water-proof. Cerdier tells us that the ne-
groes on the west coast of Africa exalt a certain kind of boletus to the
sacredness of a god, and bow down in worship before it ; for this reason
Afzeltus has named this variety boletus sacer. A French chemist has
extracted wax from the milk-giving kind, but has not stated the price
of candles made from it. Others of the delving fraternity have shown
that toadstools may be used in the manufacture of Prussian blue in-
stead of blood, for, like certain animal matter, they furnish prussic
acid. As fungi, after the manner of all animal life, breathe oxygen and
throw off carbonic acid gas, their flesh partakes of animal rather than
of vegetable nature.
80 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" In t'.ieir decomposition thej' are capital fertilizers of surrounding
plants, and in seasons when the}' are plentiful it will repay the agricul-
turist to make use of them as manure.
" According to Linnaeus, the Lapps delighted in the perfume of some
species, and carried them upon their persons so that they might be the
more attractive. Linnaeus exclaims, 'O Venus! thou that scarcely
sumcest thyself in other countries with jewels, diamonds, precious
stones, gold, purple, music, and spectacle, art here satisfied with a
simple toadstool !'
"A variety of boletus — a tube-bearing species — is powdered, and
used as a protector of clothing against insects. The Agaricus musca-
rins constitutes a well-known poison to the common house-fly. It
intoxicates them to such a degree that they can be swept up and de-
stroyed.
" Certain polypori — those large, dry, corky growths found upon
logs and trees — when properly seasoned, sliced, and beaten,, engage
large manufactories in producing from them the punk of commerce,
used by the surgeon for the arrest of hemorrhage, the artist for his
shading stump, and the Fourth of July urchin for his pyrotechnic
purposes. A species of polyporus is used in Italy as scrubbing
brushes. In countries where fire-producing is unknown or laborious,
and the luxury of lucifera denied, the dried fungus enables the trans-
portation of lire from one place to another over great distances.
" The inhabitants of Franconia use the hammered slices instead of
chamois-skin for underclothing.
" Another polyporus takes its place among manufacturers as the highly
necessary razor-strop. Northern nations make bottle-stoppers of them,
as their corky nature suggests. The polyporus of the birch-tree {Poly-
pnnis betulinvs) increases the delight of smokers by its delicious flavor
when mixed with tobacco." — (Lippincott's Magazine, Philadelphia,
Penn., 1888.)
Before going further we are confronted with the statement that the
African negroes bow down in worship before a certain kind of boletus.
It is much to be regretted that Cerdier did not discover for what toxic
or other property it was thus apotheosized.
Similarly, scholars cannot remain satisfied with the assurance that
the Fiji Islanders use toadstools for girdles only, or that the Lapps
carried other varieties upon their persons to enhance their personal
attractions. Some aphrodisiac potency is more likely to have been
ascribed to them in each case, which would account for the care dis-
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UR-ORGIES. 81
played iu their preservation, and justify the suspicion that they were
kept ready to hand as provocatives to lust.
Dr. J. H. Porter is authority for the statement that in one of the
Sagas mention is made of a man bewitched by a Lapland witch,
who gave him an infusion of poisonous mushroom, which set him
crazy.
" Lichens," says De Candolle, " present two classes of properties,
which are developed by different agents, and especially by maceration
in urine." — (Encyclopaedia Britaunica, vol. v. edition of 1841.)
There is an example of the employment of mushrooms iu medicine
for the stoppage of hemorrhages of various kinds, which can be traced
back to the writings of Hippocrates. — (See " Saxon Leechdoms,"
vol. iii. p. 143.)
" Some species of mushrooms, notably the Agaricux volvaceus con-
tain sugar, which can be extracted in crystals, and is capable of under-
going the vinous fermentation." — (Encyclopedia Britaunica, editiou
of 1841, vol. vi. pp. 473, 474, article "Chemistry.")
No instance of anything resembling the Ur-Orgy of the Siberians
has been described among the Australians, but there is no knowing
what further investigation may discover of the life and mode of
thought of the wild tribes inhabiting that great continent, or island,
as the reader pleases.
" The Australians will not eat ' the common mushroom,' although
they eat almost all other kinds of fungus." — ("The Native Tribes of
South Australia," Adelaide, 1879, received through the kindness of
the Royal Society, Sydney, New South Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Esq.,
Secretary.)
" Fungi, however, were used for food. The native truffle, — ' My-
litta Australis,' — a subterranean fungus, — was much sought after by
the natives. When cut, it is iu appearance somewhat like unbaked
brown bread. I have seen large pieces, weighing several pounds, and,
in some localities, occasionally a fungus weighing lift}' pounds is
found." — ("Aborigines of Victoria," A. Brough Smyth, London, 1878,
vol. i. p. 209.)
" Mushrooms, called by the Chinese ' stones' ears,' are gathered by
some for the table, and form a part of the vegetable diet of the
priests."— (Chinese Repository, Canton, 1835, vol. iii. p. 462.)
But why the diet of priests particularly 1 May there net be some
mythical precept involved ?
(Monbottoes of Africa.) " Mushrooms are also iu common use for
6
82 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
the preparation of their sauces." — (Schweinfurth's "Heart of Africa,"
London, 1878, vol. ii. p. 42.)
" There is a great variety of mushrooms, most of which are eat.
Some, indeed, are poisonous, and unlucky accidents happen fre-
quently."— (Kemper, "History of Japan," in " Piukerton's Voyages,"
London, 1814, vol. vii. p. 698.)
A. Brough Smyth, "Aborigines of Australia," p. 132, speaks of the
use by the Australians of " a dry, white species of fungus, to kindle
tire with rapidly."
Agaric. " It groweth in Fraunce, principally upon trees that bear
mast, in manner of a white mushroom ; of a sweet savour ; very effec-
tual in Physicke and used in many Antidotes and sovereigne confec-
tions. It groweth upon the head and top of trees, it shineth in the
night, and by the light that it giveth in the dark men know when and
how to gather it." — (Pliny, lib. xvi. cap. 8, Holland's translation.)
" On mange gcneralement en Russie toutes les especes de cham
pignons ; " but the " champignon de mouche," and two other kinds, are
excepted. — (See "Voyages," Pallas, Paris, 1793, vol. i. p. 65.)
" The Ostiaks of Siberia make a ' moxa ' of ' un morceau d'agaric du
bouleau.' " — (Idem, vol. iv. p. 68.)
Bogle enumerates mushrooms among the articles of diet of the
Lamas. — (See Markham's "Thibet," London, 1879, p. 105.)
" Mushrooms and fungi of all kinds are eaten by the Bongo of the
Upper Xile region." — (See " Heart of Africa," Schweinfurth, London,
1878, vol. i. pp. 117-122.)
"The Niam-Niams of Central Africa use fungi for foods." — (Idem,
p. 281.)
In a synopsis of the lecture delivered by the explorer Stanley before
the Royal Geographical Society in London, he is represented as re-
ferring to the skill of the Niam-Niam in woodcraft, and the ability
with which they detected the edible fungi from the poisonous. — (See
" Tribune," Chicago, 111., June 28, 1890.)
Agaric. Avicenna believed that the white, or "feminine," was
good, the black, or "masculine," noxious; it was prescribed for epi-
lepsy, fevers, sciatica, asthma, pulmonary troubles, etc. (Avicenna,
vol. i. p. 278, improperly numbered in the book as p. 287, a 10, et seq.)
It also entered into a number of panaceas, such as " Theriaca," " Theo-
doricon Magnum," " Mithradatum," and others.
It was a provocative of the menses, according to Avicenna, vol. i.
p. 287, a 54
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS USED IN UR-ORGIES. 83
Thurnberg mentions a plant — " Bupleorum giganteum " — found in
Cape Colony, of which clothing was made, and which was also used
for tinder. — (See Pinkerton's Voyages, London, 1814, vol. xvi. pp. 21,
22, quoting Thurnberg's " Account of the Cape of Good Hope.")
" Toadstool, or rotten fish and willow bark, which are delicacies
among the Kamtchadals," — ("Russian Discoveries between Asia and
America,'' William Coxe, London, 1803, p. 60, quoting Steller's
account of the Behring Voyage.)
There are some varieties of agaric, notably that of the olive-tree,
which at times emit by night a phosphorescent light. This peculiarity
may well have caused them to be regarded with reverential awe by the
ancients. On the subject of this effulgence, see " Philosophy of
Magic," Eusebe Salverte, New York, 1862, vol. i. p. 63.
Pope Clement VII. died of eating too many mushrooms. See Schu-
rig's "Chylologia," Dresden, 1725, vol. i. p. 60.
(Tierra del Fuego.) " There is one vegetable production in this
country which is worthy of mention, as it aftbrds a staple article of
food to the natives. It is a globular fungus, of a bright yellow color,
and of about the size of a small apple, which adheres in vast numbers
to the bark of the beech-trees. ... It is eaten by the Fuegians in
large quantities, uncooked, and when well chewed has a mucilaginous
and slightly sweet taste, together with a faint odor like that of a
mushroom. Excepting a few berries of a dwarf arbutus, which need
hardly be taken into account, these poor savages never eat any other
vegetable food besides this fungus." — (Darwin, in "Voyage of Ad-
venture and Beagle," London, 1839, vol. iii. pp. 298, 299.)
" These Fuegians appeared to think the excrescences which grow on
the birch-trees, like the gall-nuts on an oak, an estimable dainty." —
(Idem, vol. i. p. 440 ; again, vol. ii. p. 185.)
Agaric, or toadstool, employed in medicine " to provoke to vomit "
(see "Most Excellent and Approved Medicines," London, 1654, pp. 3
and 10); also given "for provoking the courses " (idem, p. 23); also
"to loosen the body " (idem, p. 36).
To insure conception, the belief was that both man and woman
should take a potion of hare's rennet in wine, — "then quickly she
will be pregnant, and for meat she shall for some while eat mush-
rooms."— ("Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 347.)
The Bannocks and Shoshonees of the Rocky Mountains eat mush-
rooms, — " the kind that grows on a Cottonwood stump ; they know
84 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
that some kinds are bad." — (Interview with the Bannocks and Sho-
shonees, through the interpreters, Joe and Charlie Rainey, at Fort
Hall, Idaho, 1881.
The Indians above mentioned had no knowledge of any dance in
connection with the mushroom or fungus.
THE MUSHROOM IN CONNECTION WITH THE FAIRIES. 85
XII.
THE MUSHROOM IN CONNECTION WITH THE FAIEIES.
TN the opinion of the folk of Great Britain and Ireland, possibly of
the Continent as well, the mushroom was intimately connected
with the dwellers in the realm of sprites and fairies, as can be shown
in a moment, and by simple reference.
The lore of the peasantry of those countries is replete with the
uncanuiness of the "Fairy Circles," which modern investigation has
shown to be due to a species of fungus.
" Various theories were current among the peasantry to account for
their existence. Some of them ascribed them to lightning; others to
moles or other animals ; and others again to the growth of a species
of fungus. This is the more educated class. But the lower orders
implicitly believed that they were the work of the fairies, and used by
them for their nocturnal dancing. Woe to the poor mortal who ven-
tured near at such moments. He was seized, forced to dance, soon
lost all consciousness, and was truly in luck if he ever again suc-
ceeded in rejoining his mortal relatives." A very exhaustive account of
these Circles, and the superstitions in reference to them, is to be
found in the third volume of Brand's Popular Antiquities, London,
1854, article "Fairy Mythology," p. 476 et seq.
" The most clear and satisfactory remarks on the origin of fairy
rings are probably those of Dr. Wollaston, Sec. R. S., printed in the
second part of the "Philosophical Transactions " for 1S07. . . . The
cause of their appearance he ascribes to the growth of certain species
of agaric, which so entirely absorbs all nutriment from the soil beneath
that the herbage is for a while destroyed." — (Idem, p. 483.)
" In Northumberland, the common people call a certain fungous
excrescence, sometimes found about the roots of old trees, Fairy But-
ter. After great rains, and in a certain degree of putrefaction, it is
reduced to a consistency which, together with its color, makes it not
unlike butter, and hence the name." — (Idem, p. 493.)
86 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Lady "Wilde's work, already quoted, makes no reference to the
employment of either mushrooms or misletoe by the Irish peasantry.
The mixing, in the popular imagination, of Fairies aud Druids, of
Fairy Circles and the Druid Circles, is noticed on p. 505, Brand, art.
" Fairy Mythology."
Perhaps in all this there may be a vague reminiscence of a former
use of the agaric in potions not very dissimilar to those still to be
found among the Koraks and Tchuktchi. We read that this Witches'
Butter was associated with sorcery. It was believed in Sweden to
have been "spewed up " by the cat which went with the witch. — (See
Brand, " Popular Antiquities," London, 1872, vol. iii. p. 7, article
"Sorcery.")
" No subject could be more interesting than an inquiry into the
origin of the superstitions of uncivilized tribes." (" Philosophy of
Magic," Salverte, vol. i. p. 138.) Salverte remarks that the Fairies
" were supposed to be diminutive, aerial beings, beautiful, lively,
and beneficent in their intercourse with mortals, inhabiting a region
called Fairy Land, — Alf-Heiner, — commonly appearing on earth
at intervals, when they left traces of their visits in beautiful green
rings, where the dewy sward had been trodden in their moon-light
dances. . . . The investigations of science have traced these rings
to a species of fungus, — Agaricus oreades, — but imagination still
leads us willingly back to the traditional appearance of these dimin-
utive beiugs in the train of their queen ; . . . and we also behold her
tiny followers dancing away the midnight hours to the sound of the
most enchanting music." — (Idem, vol. i. p. 138, footnote.)
There is the following memorandum in Hazlitt's "Fairy Tales"
(London, 1875, p. 35) : " Mem., that pigeon's-dung and nitre steeped
in water will make the fayry circles ; it draws to it the nitre of the
air, and it will never weare out."
" The mushroom has always been associated with fairy-lore. It is
mentioned as the fairy diuing-table (p. 502) ; while in the list of foods
partaken of by Oberon, we read : —
"... with a wine,
Ne'er ravished with a clustered vine,
But gently strained from the side
Of a sweet and dainty bride ;
Brought in a daizy chalice, which
He fully quaffed up to bewitch
His blood to height."
THE MUSHROOM IN' CONNECTION WITH THE FAIRIES. 87
While Eobiu Goodfellow is represented as singing, —
*' AVhen lads and lasses merry be,
With possets and with juncates fine,
Unseene of all the company,
I eat their cakes and sip their wine ;
And to make sport,
I fart and snort,
And out the candles I do blow."
— (Brand, Pop. Ant, London, 1872, pp. 476 et seq., articles " Fairy My-
thology," and " Eobin Goodfellow.")
Herrick describes the food of fairies : —
"... with a wine
If e'er ravished from the flattering vine,
But gentle prest from the soft side
Of the most sweet and dainty bride."
— (Herrick, " Hesperides ; " also quoted in Hazlitt's "Fairy Tales,"
Londou, 1875, p. 300.)
The "wine" just described would seem to belong, in all fairness, to
the classification of Ur-Orgies.
A careful search of Shakspeare shows that while perhaps he knew
little directly to our purpose, he still had a knowledge that we may
utilize ; for example, he speaks of the " midnight mushroom," showing
that it was an element of midnight revels of the fairies; he alludes to
customs which certainly suggest that slaves and criminals were in
early days buried beneath dung-heaps as a punishment ; and he can
be adduced to prove that the epithet "dunghill" applied to a man,
was a most deadly insult ; but let the bard speak for himself, — ■
" Prospcro. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves ;
And ye that on the sands with printless feet,
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him,
■\Vhen he comes back ; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green, sour ringlets make,
AVhereof the ewe bites not ; and yon whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms." — (Tempest, act v. scene 1.)
" Ajax. Thou stool for a witch." — (Troilus and Cressida, act U. scene I.)
The concordance consulted was that of the Clarkes.
The association of " toadstools " with witchcraft may have been due
to the belief that toads were the constant companions and servants of
the witches and fairies.
88 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Gesner says that witches made use of toads as a charm, " ut vim
coeundi, ni fallor, iu viris tollerunt." — (Brand, Pop. Ant. London,
1872, vol. ii. page 170, art. "Divination at Weddings.")
" Un crapaud noir de venin " was to be employed by those seeking
favor of the witches of " Lies Bourbonnais," "La Fascination." — (J.
Tuchmaun, in " Melusine," Paris, July, August, 1890.)
May dew was considered a most beneficial application for the skin,
but young maidens while gathering it were careful not " to put foot
within the rings, lest they should be liable to the fairies' power." —
(" Illustrations of Shakspeare," Francis Douce, London, 1807, vol. i.
p. 180.)
It would seem that the Saxons in England, at the time of the Nor-
man Conquest, were fully aware of the deadly effects producible by the
mushroom : "The old woman came back to her, ere she went to bed.
' I have found it all out and more. I know where to get scarlet toad-
stools and I put the juice in his men's ale. They are laughing and
roaring now, merry-mad every one of them.' "
The effects of the potion are thus described : " His men were grouped
outside of the gate, chattering like monkeys ; the porter and the monks
from the inside entreating them, vainly, to come in and go to bed
quietly.
" But they would not. They vowed and swore that a great gulf
had opened all down the road, and that one step more would tumble
them in headlong. ... In vain Hereward stormed ; assured them
that the supposed abyss was nothing but the gutter; proved the fact
by kicking Martin over it. The men determined to believe their own
eyes, and after a while fell asleep in heaps in the roadside, and lay
there till morning, when they woke, declaring, as did the monks, that
they had been bewitched. They knew not — and happily, the lower
orders, both in England and on the Continent, do not yet know — the
potent virtues of that strange fungus with which Lapps and Samoieds
have, it is said, practised wonders for centuries past." — (" Hereward,
the last of the English," Charles Kingsley. New York, 1866, p. 111.)
See also under " Ordeals and Punishments," and " Insults."
PKOBABLE USE OF FUNGI AMONG THE MEXICANS. 89
xm.
A USE OF POISOXOUS FUNGI QUITE PROBABLY EXISTED
AMONG THE MEXICANS.
^THIAT some such use of poisonous fungi as lias been shown exists
-*- among the tribes of Siberia was made by other nations, would be
difficult to prove in the absence of direct testimony, but many inci-
dental references are encountered which the reflective mind must
consider with care before rejecting them as absolutely irrelevant in this
connection. The Mexicans, as we learn from Sahaguu, were not igno-
rant of the mushroom, which is described as the basis of one of their
festivals. He says that they ate the nanacatl, a poisonous fungus
which intoxicated as much as wine; after eating it, they assembled in
a plain, where they dauced and sang by night and bj' day to their
fullest desire. This was on the first day, because on the following day
they all wept bitterly, and they said that they were cleaning them-
selves and washing their eyes and faces with their tears.1
It is true that Sahagun does not describe any specially revolting
feature in this orgy, but it is equally patent that he is describing from
hearsay, and, probably, he was not allowed to know too much. In a
second reference to this fungus, which he now calls teo-nanacatl,
he alludes to the toxic properties, which coincide closely with those
of the mushrooms noted in Siberia and on the northwest coast of
America.
" There are some mushrooms in this country which are called teo-
nanacatl. They grow under the grass in the fields and plains ; . . .
they are hurtful to the throat and intoxicate ; . . . those who eat
1 Xanacatl, que son los hongos malos qne emborrachan tan bien como el vino ;
y se juntaban en nn llano despues de haberlo comido, donde bailaban y cantaban
de noche y de dia a su placer ; y esto el primer dia porque al dia siguiente Uoraban
todos mucho y decian que se limpiaban y lavaban los ojos y caras con sus lagrimas.
— (Sahagun, in Kingsborough's "Mexican Antiquities," vol. vii. p. 308.)
90 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
them see visions and feel flutterings in the heart; those who eat many
of them are excited to lust, and even so if they eat but few." l
The proof is not at all conclusive that this intoxication was produced
as among the Siberian and Cape Flattery tribes; but it is very odd
that the Aztecs should eat mushrooms for the same purpose ; that they
should hold their dance out in a plain aud by night (that is, in a place
as remote as possible from Father Sahagun's inspection). On the sec-
ond day, to trust Sahagun's explanation, they would appear to have
bewailed their behavior on the first ; although it should be remarked
here that ceremonial weeping has not been unknown to the American
aborigines, and may, in this case, have been induced by causes not
revealed to the stranger. Lastly, it is important to note that this
poisonous fungus was a violent excitant, a nervous irritant, and an
aphrodisiac.
Another early Spanish observer, also cited by Kingsborough, de-
scribes them in these terms: —
" They had another kind of drunkenness, . . . which was with small
fungi or mushrooms, . . . which are eaten raw, and, on account of
being bitter, they drink after them or eat with them a little honey of
bees, and shortly after that they see a thousand visions, especially
suakes.
"They went raving mad, running about the streets in a wild state
(' bestial embriaguez '). They called these fungi ' teo-na-m-catl,' a
word meaning ' bread of the gods.' "
This author does not allnde to any effect upon the kidneys.3
This account can be compared, word for word, with those previously
quoted from the Moqui Indian and from the descriptions of the Ur-
Orgies of the Siberians.
1 Hay unos honguillos en esta tierra que se Haitian teo-nanacatl ; crianse debnjo
del heno en los eampos 6 paramos . . . danan la garganta y emborrachan . . . los
que los comen ven visiones y sienten buscas en el corazon ; a los que comen mucbos
de ellos provocan a luxuria, y aunque sean pocos. — (Sabagun, in Kingsborough's
"Mexican Antiquities," vol. vii. p. 369.)
3 Tenian otra manera de embriaguez . . . era con unos hongos 6 setas pequehas
. . . que comidos crudos y por ser amargos, beben tras ellos 6 comen con ellos un
poco de miel de abejas, y de alii a poco rato, veian mil visiones y en especial cule-
bras. — (By the author of "Kitos Antiguos, Sacrificios e idolatrias de los Indios en
Nueva Espafia," Kingsborough, vol. ix. p. 17.)
This author seems to have been the Franciscan Fray Toribio de Benvento, com-
monly called by his Aztec nickname of " Motolinia, the Beggar." He is designated
by Kingsborough " the Unknown Franciscan," because, through motives of humil-
itv, he declined to subscribe his name to his valuable writings.
PROBABLE USE OF FUNGI AMONG THE MEXICANS. 91
The list of quotations is not yet complete. Tezozomoc, also an
author of repute, relates that at the coronation of Montezuma the
Mexicans gave wild mushrooms to the strangers to eat ; that the
strangers became drunk, and thereupou began to dance.1 All of which
is a terse description of a drunken orgy induced by poisonous mush-
rooms, but not represented with the disgusting sequences which would
have served to establish a connection with urine dances.
Diego Duran also gives the particulars of the coronation of this Mon-
tezuma (the second of the name and the one on the throne at the date
of the arrival of Cortes). He says that, after the usual human sacri-
fices had been offered up in the temples, all went to eat raw mushrooms,
which caused them to lose their senses and affected them more than
if they had drunk much wine. So utterly beside themselves were they
that many of them killed themselves with their own hands, and by the
potency of those mushrooms they saw visions and had revelations of
the future, the devil speaking to them in their drunkenness.2 Duran,
of course, is not describing what he saw. Doubtless, in that case, his
narrative would have been more animated aud, possibly, more to our
purpose.
MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS WORSHIPPED BY AMERICAN INDIANS.
Dorman is authority for the statement that mushrooms were wor-
shipped by the Indians of the Antilles, and toadstools by those in Vir-
ginia,8 but for what toxic or therapeutic qualities, real or supposed, he
does not say. The toxic properties of fungi would seem to have been
knowu to the Algonkins : —
" Paused to rest beneath a pine tree.
From whose branches trail the mosses,
And whose trunk was coated over
With the Dead Man's Moccasin Leather,
With the fungus white and yellow."
"Hiawatha," Henry W. Longfellow, canto ix.
1 A los estranjeros, les dieron a comer hongos montesinos que se embriagaban
con ellos y con esto entrdron a la danza. — (Tezozomoc, " Cronica Mexicana," in
Kingsborough, "Mexican Antiquities," vol. ix. p. 153.)
2 Ivan todos a comer hongos crados, con la cual comida salian todos de juicio y
quedaban peores que si hubieran bebido mucho vino ; tan embriagados y fuera de
sentido que muchos de ellos se mataban con propria mano ; y con la fuerza de
aquellos hongos vian visiones y tenian rebelaciones de lo porvenir hablandoles el
Demonio en aquella embriaguez. — (Diego Duran, lib. 2, cap. 54, p. 564. )
8 Rushton M. Dorman, "Primitive Superstitions," New York, 1881, p. 295.
92 SCATALOGIC KITES OF AIL XATIOXS.
A FORMER USE OF FUNGUS INDICATED IN THE MTTHS OF CEYLON,
AND IN THE LAWS OF THE BRAHMINS.
On the west shore of the Pacific Ocean, aside from the orgies of the
Siberian Shamans, no instance is on record of the use of the mush-
room, or other fnngus in religious rites in the present day.
A former use of it is indicated in the Cingalese myths, which teach
that "Chance produced a species of mushroom called mattika1 or jessa-
thon, on which they lived for sixty-five thousand years ; but being de-
termined to make an equal division of this, also, they lost it. Luckily
for them, another creeping plant [mistletoe 1] called badrilata grew up,
on which they (the Brahmins) fed for thirty-five thousand years, but
which they lost for the same reason as the former ones." — ("Asiatic
Researches," Calcutta, 1807, vol. vii. p. 441.)
Among the Brahmins of the main land no such myth is related ; but
an English writer says :
" The ancient Hindus held the fungus in such detestation that Yama,
a legislator, supposed now to be the judge of departed spirits, declares:
' Those who eat mushrooms, whether springing from the ground or
growing on a tree, fully equal in guilt to the slayers of Brahmins and
the most despicable of all deadly sinners." — ("Asiatic Researches,"
Calcutta, 1795, vol. iv. p. 311.)
Dubois refers to the same subject. "The Brahmins," he says,
" have also retrenched from their vegetable food, which is the great
fund of their subsistence, all roots which form a head or bulb in the
ground, such as onions,2 and those also which assume the same shape
above ground, like mushrooms and some others. . . . Are we to sup
1 The word "mattika" cannot be found in Forbes' English-Hisdustani Diction-
ary (London, 1848). It may, perhaps, belong to an extinct dialect. The word
" matt," meaning "drank," would serve a good purpose for this article could a rela-
tionship be shown to exist between it and " mattika." This the author is of course
unable to do, being totally ignorant of Hindustani. Neither does " badrilata "
occur in Forbes, who interprets "mistletoe" as "banda." The contributor to the
Asiatic Researches, who used the word, thought it meant "agaric."
2 Higgius believes that the ancient Egyptians had discovered a similarity between
the coats of an onion and the planetary spheres, and says that " it was called (by the
Greeks), from being sacred to the father of ages, oionoon — onion. . . . The onion
was adored (as the black stone in Westminster Abbey is by us) by the Egyptians
for this property as a type of the eternal renewal of ages. . . . The onion is adored
in India, and forbidden to be eaten." — (Quoting "Forster's Sketches of Hindoos,"
p. 35. Higgins' "Anacalypsis," vol. ii. p. 427.)
PROBABLE USE OF FUSGI AMONG THE MEXICANS. 93
pose that they had discovered something unwholesome in the one
species and proscribed the other on account of its fetid smell? This I
cauuot decide ; all the information I have ever obtained from those
among those whom I have consulted on the reasons of their abstinence
from them being that it is customary to avoid such articles." — (Abbe
Dubois, "People of India," Loudon, 1817, p. 117.)
This inhibition, under such dire penalties, can have but one mean-
ing. In primitive times the people of India must have been so ad-
dicted to the debauchery induced by potions into the composition of
which entered poisonous fungi and mistletoe (the mushroom "growing
on a tree "), and the effects of such debauchery must have been found
so debasing aud pernicious, that the priest-rulers were compelled to
employ the same maledictions which Moses proved of efficacy in with-
drawing the children of Israel from the worship of idols.1
1 But on the sixth day of the moon's age " women walk in the forests with a fan
in one hand, and eat certain vegetables, in hope of beautiful children. See the
account given by Pliny of the Druidical mistletoe or viscum, which was to be
gathered when the moon was six days old, as a preservative from sterility." — (Sir
William Jones in "Asiatic Researches," Calcutta, 1790, vol. iii. art. 12, p. 2S4,
quoted by Edward Moor, "Hindu Pantheon," London, 1S10, p. 131. J
94 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XIV.
THE ONION ADORED BY THE EGYPTIANS.
rpHERE are examples of the ideas surrounding onions, leeks, garlic,
and bulbous vegetables of different kinds, in many countries.
" The Egyptians likened the whole firmament to an onion with its
varied shells and radiations ; and this, together with the aphrodisiacal
and fertilizing properties which this vegetable is almost universally
held to possess, rendered it sacred." — (*' Rivers of Life," Forlong, Lon-
don, 1883, vol. i. p. 474.)
"The species of onion which the Egyptians abhorred was the squill
or red squill, because consecrated to Typhon ; the other kinds they ate
indiscriminately." — (Fosbroke, " Cyclopaedia of Antiquities," Loudon,
1843, vol. ii. p. 109, article " Onion.")
"At Babylon, beside Memphis, they made an onion their god." —
(Reginald Scot, " Discovery of Witchcraft," London, 1651, p. 376.)
" Beans the Egyptians do not sow at all in their country ; neither do
they eat those that happen to grow there, nor taste them when dressed.
The priests indeed abhor the sight of that pulse, accounting it impure."
— (Herodotus, " Euterpe," p. 36.)
Among the Romans, " the Flamen Dialis might not ride, or even
touch, beans or ivy." — ("The Golden Bough," James G. Frazer, M.A.,
London, 1890, vol. i. p. 117.)
Pliny mentions the medicinal use of certain bulbs, difficult of denti-
fication in our day. " The bulb of Maegara acts as a strong aphro-
disiac ; " others " aid delivery ; " others were used " for the cure of tho
sting of serpents." The ancients used to give bulb-seeds " to per-
sons afflicted with madness, in drink." — (Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. 20,
cap. 40.)
Martial has the following : " XXXIV. Bulbs. If your wife is old
and your members languid, bulbs can do no more for you than fill
your belly" (edition of London, 1871). A footnote to the above
says : " To what particular bulb provocative effects were attributed is
unknown."
THE ONION ADORED BY THE EGYPTIANS. 9o
Acosta says of the Peruvians that before any of their great cere-
monies, " to prepare themselves, all the people fasted two days, during
which they did neyther company with their wives nor eate any meate
with salt or garlicke, nor drink any chica." — (Acosta, " Historie of
the Indies," edition of London, 1G04, quoted by Lang, "Myth, Ritual;
and Religion," London, 1887, vol. ii. p. 283.)
According to Aviceuua, garlic was a provocative of the menses (vol. i.
p. 276 a 52).
When a priest of the state religion of China is about to offer a sacri-
fice he must abstain from cohabitation with his wives and " from eat-
ing onions, leeks, or garlic." — ("Chinese Repository," Canton, 1835,
vol. iii. p. 52.)
Juvenal says of the Egyptians : " It is an impious act to break with
the teeth a leek or an onion." — (Satire xv., Rev. Lewis Evans's
translation.)
By the Irish peasantry " garlic is planted in the thatch " to drive
away fairies and witches. — (" Medical Mythology of Ireland," James
Moouey, American Philosophical Society, 1887.)
The Danes placed garlic in the cradle of the new-born child to avert
the maleficence of witches. — (See Brand, " Popular Antiquities," vol. ii.
p. 73, article " Groaning Cakes and Cheese.")
In rustic England many good folk still believe that the house upon
which grows the leek will never be struck by lightning. — (See Brand,
" Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 317, article " Rural Charms.")
Speaking of the Russian dissenters, known as the Raskol, Heard
says : " They carried their resistance into all the details of daily life;
as matters of conscience, they eschewed the use of tobacco, for ' the
things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man '
(Mark vii. 15) ; of the potato, as being the fruit with which the serpent
tempted Eve." — ("The Russian Church and Russian Dissent," Al-
bert F. Heard, New York and Loudon, 1887, p. 194.)
The quotation from the New Testament seems applicable to the sub-
ject of urine dances, and the interdiction of the use of the potato may
mean more than appears on the surface.
Possibly, the intention in Russia was to wean the sectaries away
from the use of bulbs or fungi not to the liking of the more thoughtful
leaders of the new movement.
" From the earliest times garlic has been an article of diet." — (En-
cyclopedia Britannica, mentioning Israelites, Egyptians, Greeks, and
Romans.)
96 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
In the time of Shakspeare, " to smell of garlic was accounted a sign
of vulgarity." — (Idem, referring to " Coriolanus," iv. 6, and "Meas-
ure for Measure," iii. 2.)
" Garlic was placed by the ancient Greeks on the piles of stones at
cross-roads as a supper for Hecate." — (Idem.)
" According to Pliny, garlic and onions were invoked as deities by
the Egyptians at the taking of oaths. The inhabitants of Pelusium, in
Lower Egypt, who worshipped the onion, are said to have held both
it and garlic in aversion as food." — (Encyc. Brit., article " Garlic")
Garlic is " fastened to the caps of children, suspended from the
sterns of vessels and from new houses, in the Levant, as, centuries ago,
it was hung over the door in the more civilized parts of Europe." —
("Superstitions of Scotland," John Graham Dalyell, Edinburgh, 183-1,
p. 219.)
" The onion was among the earliest cultivated vegetables, and in
Egypt was a sort of divinity." — (American Encycloptedia, New York,
1881, article "Onion.")
" A phallic importance seems to have attached to the onion. Burton,
in his 'Anatomy of Melancholy,' edition of 1660, p. 538, speaks of
' cromnysmantia,' — a kind of divination with onions laid on the altar
at Christmas Eve, practised by girls to know when they shall be mar-
ried and how many husbands they shall have. This appears also to
have been a German custom." — (Brand, " Popular Antiquities," vol. iii.
pp. 356, 357.)
Sir Thomas More wrote the following (the original is in Latin ; the
translation is by Harington) : —
" If leeks you leek, but do their smell disleek,
Eat onions, and you shall not smell the leek ;
If you of onions would the scent expel,
Eat garlic, that shall drown the onion's smell ;
But against garlic's savour, at one word,
I know but one receipt. What's that ? Go look."
The last line is left untranslated ; in the original it reads, —
*' Aut nihil, aut tantum, tollere merda potest."
(Harington, " Ajax," quoting Sir Thomas More.)
SACRED INTOXICATION AND PHALLISM. 9/
XV.
SACRKD INTOXICATION AND PHALLISM.
HPWO fundamental principles underlie the structure of primordial
religion, — Intoxication and Phallism. All perversion of the
cerebral functions, whether temporary estrangement or permanent
alienation, is classi6ed as Obsession ; and the pranks and gibberish
of the maniac or the idiot are solemnly treasured as outbursts of
inspiration.
Where such temporary exaltation can be produced by an herb, bulb,
liquid, or food, the knowledge of such excitant is kept as long as pos-
sible from the laity ; and even after the general diffusion of a more en-
lightened intelligence has broadened the mental horizon of the devotee,
these narcotics and irritants are " sacred," and the frenzies they induce
are " sacred " also.
If the drug in questiou, whatever it be, possess the additional recom-
mendation of acting upon the genito-uriuary organs, and by arousing
the sexual energies appeals to the phallic element in the religious
nature, the apotheosis of the drug follows as a matter of course, no
matter under what expression or symbolism it may be veiled ; and as
human nature feels the necessity of restraint upon the passions as well
as a stimulus thereof, it follows that there are to be noted many cases
in which a veneration is paid to plants and drugs which have just the
opposite effect, — that is to say that where an aphrodisiac is held
among the sacred essences or agents its counter or antagonist is held
in almost equal esteem.
Mushroom, mistletoe, rue, ivy, mandrake, hemp, opium, the stra-
monium of the medicine-man of the Hualpai Indians of Arizona, —
all may well be examined in the light of this proposition. Frazer
says: " According to primitive notions, all abnormal states — such as
intoxication or madness — are caused by the entrance of a spirit
into the person; such mental states, in other words, are regarded as
forms of possession or inspiration." — (" The Golden Bough," vol. i.
p. 184.)
7
98 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Women who were addicted to Bacchanalian sports presently ran to
the ivy and plucked it off, tearing it to pieces with their hands and
gnawing it with their mouths. ... It was reported ... it hath a
spirit that stirreth and moveth to madness, transporting and bereaving
of the senses, and that alone by itself it introduceth drunkenness with-
out wine to those that have an easy inclination to enthusiasm." —
(Plutarch, " Morals," Goodwin's English translation, Boston, 1870,
vol. ii. p. 264.)
An eternal drunkenness was the reward held out to the savage warrior
in many regions of the world ; the Scandinavians, as well as the Indians
of the Pampas, had this belief. — (See " Les Primitifs," Elie R^clus,
Paris, 1885, p. 123.)
Speaking of the Ur-Orgy of the Siberians, Dr. J. W. Kingsley com-
ments in the following terms : " I remember being shown this fungus
by an Englishman who was returning via the Central Pacific Railway
from Siberia. He fully confirmed all that I had heard on the subject,
having seen the orgy himself. . . . Nothing religious in this, you may
say ; but look at the question a little closer and you will see that these
' intoxicants,' which nowadays are used to produce mere excitement
or brutal drunkenness, were at first looked upon as media able to raise
the mere man up to a level with his gods, and enable him to communi-
cate with them, as was certainly the case with the 'soma 'of the Hindu
ecstatics and the hashich I have seen used by some tribes of Arabs.
It would be well worth while trying to ascertain whether the actors in
the Ur-Orgy had eaten any particular kind of herb before its com-
mencement, or whether they had any tradition of their ancestors hav-
ing done so." — (Personal letter to Captain Bourke, dated Cambridge,
England, May, 1888.)
For sacred intoxication among the Finns, see also "Chaldean Magic,"
Lenormant, p. 255, where there is a reference to " intoxicating
drugs."
THE DRU1DICAL USE OF THE MISTLETOE. 99
XVI.
AN INQUIRY INTO THE DRUIDICAL USE OF THE
MISTLETOE.
T)UT the question at once presents itself, For what reason did the
"^ Celtic Druids employ the much venerated mistletoe 1 This
question becomes of deep significance in the light of the learning shed
by Godfrey Higgins and General Vallencey upon the derivation of the
Druids from Buddhistic or Brahminical origin.
" Aja8son enumerates the following superstitions of ancient Britain,
as bearing probable marks of an Oriental origin : . . . the ceremonials
used in cutting the plants." — (''Mistletoe," Pliny, Bohn, lib. 30,
cap. 6, footnote.)
That the mistletoe was regarded as a medicine, and a very potent
one, is easy enough to show. All the encyclopaedias admit that much ;
but the accounts that have been preserved of the ideas associated with
this worship are not complete or satisfactory.
" The mistletoe, which they (the Druids) called ' all-heal,' used
to cure disease." — (McClintock and Strong's Encyclopaedia, quoting
Stukeley.)
" The British bards and Druids had an extraordinary veneration for
the number three. ' The mistletoe,' says Vallencey, in his ' Grammar
of the Irish Language,' ' was sacred to the Druids, because not only its
berries, but its leaves also, grow in clusters of three united to one
stock. The Christian Irish held the Seamroy sacred in like manner,
because of three leaves united to one stock.' " — (Brand, " Popular An-
tiquities," London, 1872, vol. i, p. 109, article "St. Patrick's Day.")
" Within recent times the mistletoe has been regarded as a valuable
remedy in epilepsy (query, on the principle of similia similibus f) and
other diseases, but at present is not employed. . . . The leaves have
been fed to sheep in time of scarcity of other forage (which shows at
least that it is edible)." — (Appleton's American Encyclopedia.)
" Seems to possess no decided medical properties." — (International
Encyclopaedia.)
100 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" It is now perhaps impossible to account for the veneration in
which it was held and the wonderful qualities which it was supposed
to possess." — ("The Druids," Eev. Richard Smiddy, Dublin, 1871,
p. 90.)
Pliny mentions three varieties. Of these "the hyphar is useful for
fattening cattle, if they are hardy enough to withstand the purgative
effect it produces at first ; the viscuin is medicinally of value as an
emollient, and in cases of tumors, ulcers, and the like."
Pliny is also quoted as saying that it was considered of benefit to
women in childbirth, — "in conceptum feminarum adjuvare si omnino
secum habeant." l Pliny is also authority for the reverence in which
the mistletoe growing on the robur (Spanish roble, or evergreen oak)
was held by the Druids. The robur, he says, is their sacred tree,
and whatever is found growing upon it, they regard as sent from
heaven and as the mark of a tree chosen by God. — (Encyclopaedia
liritanuica.)
Brand (" Popular Antiquities," London, 1849, vol. i. article " Mistle-
toe") cites the opinion of various old authors that mistletoe was re-
garded " as a medicine very likely to subdue not only the epilepsy,
but all other convulsive disorders. . . . The high veneration in which
the Druids were held by the people of all ranks proceeded in a great
measure from the wonderful cures they wrought by means of the mis-
tletoe of the oak. . . . The mistletoe of the oak, which is very rare, is
vulgarly said to be a cure for wind-ruptures in children ; the kind
which is found upon the apple is said to be good for fits."
" The Persians and Masagetoa thought the mistletoe something
divine, as well as the Druids." — ("Antiquities of Cornwall," 1796,
p. 03.)
After telling of the use of this plant among the Druids and their
mode of gathering it, Fosbroke adds : " Mistletoe was not unknown in
the religious ceremonies of the ancients, and was supposed to have
magical and medicinal properties." — Fosbroke, Cyclopaedia of Antiqui-
ties, vol. ii. p. 1047, article " Mistletoe," London, 1843.
Mr. W. Winwood Reade mentions, in his " Veil of Isis " (London,
1861), at page 69, that the missolding or mistletoe of the oak, still
called in Wales " all-iach," or " all-heal," was the sovereign remedy of
the Druids; and at page 71 he adds that a powder from its berries was
1 As has already been shown on page 93, the sacrificial mistletoe was gathered by
the Druids when the moon was six days old, that day being the first of the month,
year, and cycle among the Druids.
THE DRUIDICAL USE OF THE MISTLETOE. 101
considered a cure for sterility. He describes the effect of mistletoe
as that of a strong purgative. — (Personal letter from Frank Rede
Fowke, Esq., South Keusiugton Museum, London, England, June 18,
1888.)
"The Druids named it Uil-loc or Ail-Heal, because they said it pro-
moted increase of species or prevented sterility." — (" Rivera of Life,"
Forlong, vol. ii. p. 331.)
" We shall probably never hear the whole truth in regard to this an-
cient religion (Druidism) ; for, as Mr. Davies says, 'most of the offen-
sive ceremonies must have been either retrenched or concealed,' as the
Roman laws and edicts had for ages (before the Bardic writings) re-
strained the more cruel and bloody sacrifices, and at the time of the
Bards nothing remained but symbolic rites." — (" Rivers of Life,"
Forlong, vol. ii. p. 331.)
The plant (mistletoe) is one of world-wide fame. Masagaetae, Sky-
thians, and the most ancient Persians called it the " Healer," and Vir-
gil calls it a " branch of gold ; " while Charon was dumb in presence of
such an augur of coming bliss; it was "the expectancy of all nations,
longe post tempore visum, as betokening Sol's return to earth." —
("Rivers of Life," Forlong, vol. i. p. 81.)
Borlase sees much similarity between the Magi and our Druids, and
Strabo did the same. "Both carried in their hands, during the cele-
bration of their rites, a bunch of plants ; that of the Magi was of course
the Horn, called Barsom, — Assyrian and Persepolis sculptures substan-
tiate this. The Horn looks very much like the Mistletoe, and the
learned Dr. Stukeley thinks that this parasite is meant as being on
the tree mentioned by Isaiah, vi. 13." — ("Rivers of Life," Forlong,
vol. i. p. 43.)
"But yet it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and shall be eaten ;
as a teil tree and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when thev
cast their leaves ; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." —
(Isaiah, vi. 13.)
" The mistletoe wreath marks in one sense Venus's temple, for any
girl may be kissed if caught under its sprays, — a practice, though
modified, which recalls to us that horrid one mentioned by Herodotus,
where all women were for once at least the property of the man who
sought them in Mylitta's temple." — ("Rivers of Life," Forlong, Lon-
don, 1883, vol. i. p. 91.)
The following are Frazer's views on this subject: "The mistletoe
was viewed as the seat of life of the oak. The conception of the mistle-
102 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
toe as the seat of life of the oak would naturally be suggested to primi-
tive people by the observation that while the oak is deciduous, the
mistletoe which grows on it is evergreen. In winter, the sight of its
fresh foliage among the bare branches must have been hailed by the
worshippers of the tree as a sigu that the divine life which had ceased
to animate the brauehes yet survived in the mistletoe, as the heart of
the sleeper still beats when his body is motionless. Hence, when the
yod had to be killed, when the sacred tree had to be burut, it was
necessary to begin by breaking off the mistletoe, for so long as the
mistletoe remained intact, the oak (so people thought) was invulner-
able,— all the blows of their knives and axes would glance harmless
from its surface. But once tear from the oak its sacred heart, the
mistletoe, and the tree nodded to its fall." — ("The Golden Bough,"
James G. Frazer, M. A., London, 1890, vol. ii. pp. 295, 296.)
This train of reasoning would be irrefutable, as it is most logical,
were we in a position to be able to say that the excision of the fungus
was followed by the felling of the tree ; but, unfortunately, that is
just what we are not able to determine. As a surmise, there is no
impropriety in believing that such excision may have marked the oak
for destruction at some future day ; but there is no authority that we
can produce at this time to justify anything more than a surmise in
the premises. That the sacred character of the oak was due to the
properties discovered in the mistletoe is quite likely in view of all the
facts already presented.
O'Curry, who appears to have known all that was to be learned on
the subject of Druidism, admits that the world is in possession of very
little that is reliable ; he inclines to the view that Druidism was of
Eastern origin. (See " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish,"
Eugene O'Curry, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and New York, 1873.)
He contends that " the Sacred Wand " of the Druids was made of the
yew, and not of the oak or mistletoe. — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 194.)
Yallencey did not believe that the Persians were acquainted with
the mistletoe ; at least, he could not find any name for it in Persian.
— (See Major Charles Vallencey, "Collectanea de B.ebus Hibernicis,"
Dublin, 1774, vol. ii. p. 433.)
" In Cambodia, when a man perceives a certain parasitic plant grow-
ing on a tamarind-tree, he dresses in white and taking a new earthen
pot climbs the tree at mid-day. He puts the plant in the pot and lets
the whole fall to the ground. Then in the pot he makes a decoction
which renders him invuluerable." — (Aymonier, "Notes sur les Cou-
THE DRUIDICAL USE OF THE MISTLETOE. 103
tumes, etc., des Carubodgiens," quoted in "The Golden Bough," vol. ii.
p. 286, footnote.)
" It was that only which is found upon the oak which the Druids
employed ; and being a parasitic plant, the seeds of which are not sown
by the hand of man, it was well adapted for the purposes of supersti-
tion." — (" Philosophy of Magic," Salverte, vol. i. p. 229.)
Much testimony may be adduced to show that the mistletoe was
valued as an aphrodisiac, as conducive to fertility, a3 sacred to love,
and, in general terms, an excitant of the genito-urinary organs, which
is the very purpose for which the Siberian and North American medi-
cine-men employed the fungus, and perhaps the very reason for which
both fungus and mistletoe were excluded from the Brahmiuical
dietary.
Brand shows that mistletoe " was not unknown in the religions
ceremonies of the ancients, particularly the Greeks," and that the use
of it, savoring strongly of Druidism, prevailed at the Christmas service
of York Cathedral down to our own day. — (See in Brand, " Popular
Antiquities," London, 1849, vol. i. p. 524.)
The merry pastime of kissing pretty girls under the Christmas
mistletoe seems to have a phallic derivation. " This very old custom
has descended from feudal times, but its real origin and significance
are lost." (" Appleton's American Encyclopaedia.") Brand shows that
the young men observed the custom of " plucking off a berry at each
kiss." (Vol. i. p. 524.) Perhaps, in former times, they were required
to swallow the berry. The deductions of a recent writer merit
attention : —
" The mistletoe was dedicated to Mylitta, in whose worship every
woman must once in her life submit to the sexual embrace of a stranger.
When she concluded to perform this religious duty in honor of her
acknowledged deity, she repaired to the temple and placed herself
under the mistletoe, thus offering herself to the first stranger who
solicited her favors. The modern modification of the ceremony is found
in the practice among some people of hanging the mistletoe, at certain
seasons of the year, in the parlor or over the door, when the woman
entering that door, or found standing under the wreath, must kiss the
first man who approaches her and solicits the privilege." (" Phallic
Worship," Robert Allen Campbell, C. E., St. Louis, Mo., 1888, p. 202.)
A writer in "Notes and Queries" (Jan. 3, 1852, vol. v. p. 13) quotes
Nares to the effect that "the maid who was not kissed under it at
Christmas would not be married in that year." But another writer
104 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
(Feb. 28, 1852, same volume) points out that "we should refer the
custom to the Scandinavian mythology, wherein the mistletoe is dedi-
cated to Friga, the Venus of thci Scandinavians."1
Grimm speaks of Paltar (Balder) being killed by the stroke of a
piece of mistletiue, but ventures upon no explanation. — ("Teutonic
Mythology," vol. i. p. 220, article " Paltar.")
" Within the sanctuary at Nemi grew a certain tree of which no
branch might be broken. Only a runaway slave was allowed to
break off, if he could, one of its boughs. Success in the attempt enti-
tled him to fight the priest in single combat, and if he slew him he
reigned in his stead with the title of King of the Wood (Rex Nemoren-
sis.) Tradition averred that the fatal branch was that ' golden bough '
which at the Sibyl's bidding, ^Eneas plucked before he essayed the
perilous journey to the world of the dead." — (" The Golden Bough,"
Frazer, vol. i. p. 4, article "The Arician Grove.")
" A plant associated with the death of one of their greatest and
best-beloved gods must have been supremely sacred to all of Teutonic
blood ; and yet this opinion of its sacredness was shared by the Celtic
nations." (Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology," vol. iii. p. 1205.) "Our
herbals divide mistletoe into those of the oak, hazel, and pear tree ;
and none of them must be let touch the ground." — (Idem, p. 1207.)
Another writer (" Notes and Queries," 2d series, vol. iv. p. 50G) says :
" As it was supposed to possess the mystic power of giving fertility and
a power to preserve from poison, the pleasant ceremony of kissing under
the mistletoe may have some reference to this belief."
In vol. iii. p. 343, it is stated : " A Worcestershire farmer was accus-
tomed to take down his bough of mistletoe and give it to the cow that
calved first after New Year's Day. This was supposed to insure
good luck to the whole dairy. Cows, it may be remarked, as well as
sheep, will devoir mistletoe with avidity."
And still another (in 2d series, vol. vi. p. 523) recognizes that " the
mistletoe was sacred to the heathen Goddess of Beauty," and "it is cer-
tain that the mistletoe, though it formerly had a place among the
evergreens employed in the Christian decorations, was subsequently
excluded." This exclusion he accounts for thus: "It is also certain
that, in the earlier ages of the church, many festivities not at all tend-
ing to edification (the practice of mutual kissing among the rest) had
1 It was the only plant in the world which could harm Baldur, the son of Odin
and Friga. When a branch of it struck him he fell dead. — (See in " Bulfinch's
Mythology," revised by Rev. E. E. Hale, Boston, 18S3, p. 428.)
THE DRUIDICAL USE OF THE MISTLETOE. 103
gradually crept in and established themselves, so that, at a certain
part of the service, 'statim clerus, ipseque populus per basia blande
sese invicini oscularetur.' "
This author cites Hone, Hook, Moroni, Bescherelle, Ducange, and
others. Finally (in the 3d series, vol. vii. p. 76), an inquirer asks, " How
came it in Shakspeare's time to be considered 'baleful,' and, in our
days, the most mirth-provoking of plants ? " And still another corre-
spondent, in the same series (vol. vii. p. 237), claims that "mistletoe
will produce abortion in the female of the deer or dog."
" Sir John Ollbach, in his dissertation concerning mistletoe, which he
strongly recommends as a medicine very likely to subdue not only the
epilepsy, but all other convulsive disorders, observes that this beauti-
ful plant must have been designed by the Almighty for other and more
noble purposes than barely to feed thrushes or to be hung up supersti-
tiously in houses to drive away evil spirits. He tells (p. 12) that
'the high veneration in which the Druids were anciently held by the
people of all ranks proceeded in a great measure from the wonderful
cures they wrought by means of the mistletoe of the oak ; this tree
being sacred to them, but none so that had not the mistletoe upon
them.' Mr. F. Williams, dating from Pembroke, Jan. 28, 1791, tells
us, in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for February that year, that
'"Guidhel," mistletoe, a magical shrub, appeared to be the forbidden
tree in the middle of the trees of Eden ; for, in the Edda, the mistle-
toe is said to be Balder's death, who yet perished through blindness
and a woman.'" — (Brand, "Popular Antiquities," London, 1S72,
vol. i. p. 519, article " Evergreen-decking at Christmas.")
FORMER EMPLOYMENT OF AN INFUSION OR DECOCTION OF MISTLETOE.
That an infusion or decoction of the plant was once in use may be
gathered from the fact narrated by John Eliot Howard : " Water, in
which the sacred mistletoe had been immersed, was given to or sprinkled
upon the people." — ("The Druids and their Religion," John Eliot
Howard, in "Transactions of Victoria Institute," vol. xiv. p. 118, quot-
ing " Le gui de chene et les Druides," E. Magdaleine, Paris, 1877.)
Montfaucon says of the Druids : " lis croient que les animaux
steriles deviennent fe'eonds en buvant de l'eau degui." — (" L'antiquite
Expliquee, Paris, 1722, tome 2, part 2, p. 436, quoting and translating
Pliny.)
" The misselto, or ' Uil-ice,' was required to be taken, if possible,
from the Jovine tree when in its prime ; but it was rare to find it on
106 SCATAXOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
any oak. If obtained from one about thirty-five years old, and taken
in a potion, it conferred fertility on men, women, and children." —
(" Rivers of Life," Forlong, vol. ii. p. 355.)
Eugene O'Curry speaks of the Irish Druids having a " drink of ob-
livion," the composition of which has not, however, come down to us.
(See "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish," vol. ii. p. 198.)
O'Curry calls this drink of oblivion a "Druidical charm," and a " Dru-
idical incantation." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 226.)1
See notes in this monograph on the Hindu Lingam.
THE MISTLETOE ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN HELD SACRED BY THE
MOUND-BUILDERS.
An American writer says that among the Mound-builders the mistle-
toe was " the holiest and most rare of evergreens," and that when
human sacrifices were offered to sun and moon the victim was covered
with mistletoe, which was burnt as an incense. (Pidgeon, " Dee-coo-
dah," New York, 1853, p. 91 et seq.) Pidgeon claimed to receive his
knowledge from Indians versed in the traditions and lore of their
tribes.2
Mrs. Eastman presents a drawing of what may be taken as the altar
of Haokah, the anti-natural god of the Sioux, in which is a representa-
tion of a "large fungus that grows on trees" (query, mistletoe 1),
which, if eaten by an animal, will cause its death.8
THE MISTLETOE FESTIVAL OF THE MEXICANS.
That the Mexicans had a reverence for the mistletoe would seem to
be assured. They had a mistletoe festival. In October they cele-
brated the festival of the Neypachtly, or bad eye, which was a plant
growing on trees and hanging from them, gray with the dampness of
1 Lenormant speaks of " certain enchanted drinks, . . . which doubtless con-
tained medicinal drugs, as a cure for diseases." — ("Chaldean Magic," London,
1877, p. 41.)
2 See also Ellen Russell Emerson, " Indian Myths," Boston, 1884, p. 331, wherein
Pidgeon is quoted.
3 "Legends of the Sioux," Eastman, New York, 1849, p. 210. Readers inter-
ested in the subject of Indian altars will find descriptions, with colored plates, in
"The Snake Dance of the Moquis" (London and New York, 1884), by the author
of this volume ; and in the elaborate monograph by Surgeon Washington Matthews,
in the Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C, 1888.
THE DRUIDICAL USE OF THE MISTLETOE. 107
rain ; especially did it grow on the different kinds of oak.1 The in-
formant says he can give no explanation of this festival.
VESTIGES OF DRUIDICAL RITES AT THE PRESENT DAY.
It may he interesting to detect vestiges of Druidical rites tena-
ciously adhering to the altered life of modern civilization.
In the department of Seine-et-Oise, twelve leagues from Paris (says
a recent writer), when a child had a rupture (hernia) he was brought
under a certain oak, and some women, who no doubt earned a living
in that trade, danced around the oak, muttering spell-words till the
child was cured, — that is, dead. — ("Notes and Queries," 5th series,
vol. vii. p. 163.)
It has already been shown that the Druids ascribed this very medi-
cal quality to the mistletoe of the oak.
" In Brittany a festival for the mistletoe is still kept. . . . The
people there call it ' touzon ar gros,' — ' the herb of the cross.' " —
("Commonplace Book," Buckle, vol. ii. of his Works, p. 440, Loudon,
1872.)
Mistletoe has been burned in England in love divinations. — (See
Brand, " Popular Antiquities," London, 1872, vol. iii. p. 358, article
" Divination by Flowers.")
Frommann enumerates mistletoe among " Recentiorum ad fascinum
remedia. . . . Viscum corylinum et tiliaceum " (hazel or filbert and
linden trees). The geuitalia of the bewitched person were anointed
with an ointment prepared from the hazel mistletoe to untie " liga-
tures." (See Frommann, " Tractatus de Facinatioue," Nuremberg,
1675, pp. 938, 957, 958, 965.)
" We find that persons in Sweden who are afflicted with the falling
sickness carry with them a knife having a handle of oak mistletoe, to
ward off attacks. A piece of mistletoe hung round the neck would
ward off other sicknesses. We have Culpepper's authority for saj--
ing ' it is excellent good for the grief of the sinew, itch, sores, aud
tooth-ache, the biting of mad dogs, and venemous beasts, and that it
purgeth choler very gently.' Grimm notes that it was with a branch
of mistletoe that Balder was killed. . . . The Kadeir Taliasin says that
1 " Neypachtly quiere decir ' mal ojo ; ' es una yerva que nace en los arboles y
cuelga de ellos, parda con la humedad de las aguas, especialmente se cria en los en-
cinales y robles." — (Diego Duran, vol. iii. cap. 16, p. 391^, manuscript copy in
the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.)
108 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
the mistletoe was one of the ingredients in the awen a gwyhodeit, or
water of inspiration, science, and immortality, which the goddess Kod
prepared in her cauldron. Witches were thought to have no power to
hurt those who bore mistletoe round their neck. Sir Thomas Browne
speaks of the virtues of mistletoe in cases of epilepsy." — ("Folk-
Medicine," Black, London, 1883, p. 196.)
The same belief in Waters of Life, science, immortality, etc., seems
to obtain among the Slav nations, who also speak in their myths of
" the crazy weed," which may, perhaps, be classified with the weed of
the Borgie well, which, as we have seen, " set a' the Camerslang fo'k
wrang i' th' head." — (See " Myths and Folk-Tales of the Russians,
Western Slavs, and Magyars," Jeremiah Curtin, Boston, Mass., 1890).
The mistletoe, especially that from the linden and the oak, was enu-
merated by Etmuller among the cures for epilepsy ("tiliaceum et
querciuum ") ; others recommeuded that from the elder or willow.
For the same disease, on the same page, "zibethum" was prescribed.
(See Etmuller, "Opera Omnia," Lyons, 1690, vol. i. p. 198 : "Com-
ment. Ludovic")
The mistletoe of the juniper, gathered in the month of May, was
good for eye-water. " Maio mense instar musci adnascitur inservit
aquae ophthalmica;." — (Etmuller, vol. i. p. 84, " Schroderi Dilucidati
Phytologia.")
Fungi of different kinds dried were used as styptics. — (Idem, p. 70.)
The fungus of the oak was especially good for this purpose. —
(Idem, p. 127.)
The mistletoe of the oak was regarded as of special value in all
uterine troubles, hemorrhages, suppression of the menses, etc. — (Idem,
p. 127.)
In the Myth of Kale-wala a young maiden is represented as becom-
ing pregnant by eating a berry. (See " Myth, Ritual, and Religion,"
Andrew Lang, London, 1887, vol. ii. p. 179.)
We may ask the question, what kind of a berry this was. Reference
may also be had to what Lang has to say on the mythical conceptions
alleged to have been induced by juniper and other berries. — (Idem,
p. 180.)
The "mistletoe of the oake" was administered internally against
"epilepsie." — ("Most Excellent and Most Approved Remedies," Lon-
don, 1654, p. 14.)
"A ring made of mistletoe is esteemed in Sweden as an amulet. " —
("Folk-Medicine," Black, p. 173.)
THE DRUIDICAL USE OF THE MISTLETOE. 109
In Murrayshire, Scotland, " at the full moon in March, the inhabitants
cut withies of the mistletoe or ivy, make circles of them, keep them all
the year, and pretend to cure hectics and other troubles with them." —
(Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 151, article "Moon.")
" In North Germany, where the old Teutouic cult still lingers, the
villagers ruu about on Christmas, striking the doors and windows
with hammers, and shouting, ' Guthyl ! Guthyl ! ' — plainly the Druidi-
cal name for mistletoe used by Pliny. In Holstein, the people call the
mistletoe 'the branch of spectres;' . . . they think it cures fresh
wounds and ensures success in hunting." Stukeley is quoted to show
that the veneration for the plant prevailed at the Cathedral of York
down to the most recent times. — (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.)
" Misseltoe of the oake drunk ctireth certainly this disease " (epi-
lepsy).— ("The Poor Man's Physician," John Moncrief, Edinburgh,
1716, p. 71.)
Still another writer reckons it a specific in epilepsy ; also in apo-
plexy, vertigo, to prevent convulsions, and to assist children in teeth-
ing, being worn round their necks. " We have accounts of strange
superstitious customs used in gathering it, and that if they are not
complied with it loses its virtue. This is by some conjectured to be
the golden bough which .<Eneas made use of to introduce him to the
Elysian regions, as is beautifully described in Virgil's sixth /Eueid." —
("Complete English Dispensatory," John Quiucy, M.D., London,
1730, p. 134.)
Culpepper wrote that the mistletoe, especially that growing upon
the oak, was beneficial in the falling sickness, in apoplexy, and in
palsy ; also as a preventive of witchcraft ; in the last-named case it
should be worn about the neck. He did not seem to know anything
of the origin of these ideas and practices. — (See Richard Culpepper,
"The English Physician," London, 1765, p. 217.)
Pomet, in his " History of Drugs," London, 1737, describes agaric
as an excrescence " found on the larch, oak, etc. . . . The best agaric
is that from the Levant ; " only that " which the antients used to call
the female should be used in medicine." It was prescribed in " all
distempers proceeding from gross humors and obstructions," — such as
epilepsy, vertigo, mania, etc. ; and this partly ou the sympathetic or
similia similibits principle.
In one of the preparations for epilepsy, said by Beckherius to have
been recommended by Galen, occurs " Agaricus Viscus Querci." — (See
Danielus Beckherius, " Medicus Microcosmus," London, 1660, p. 208.)
110 SCATALOGIC BITES OF ALL 'NATIONS.
" When found growing on the oak, the mistletoe represented man."
— (Opinion of the French writer Reynaud, in his article " Druidism,"
quoted in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.)
Notwithstanding this abundant proof, which might, if necessary, be
swollen in volume, of the survival in domestic medicine, as well as in
medical practice of a more pretentious character, of the use of the
mistletoe, more particularly in cases of epilepsy, there is no instance of
its employment noticed in " Saxon Leechdoms."
The explanation may be found in the fact that that compilation was
rather exponential of the knowledge still possessed by the monks of
classical therapeutics than of the skill attained by the Saxons them-
selves ; there are pages of quotations from Sextus Placitus and other
authorities, bnt scarcely anything to show that the ideas of the Saxons
themselves were represented.
THE LINGUISTICS OF THE MISTLETOE.
Other curious instances of survival present themselves in the lin-
guistics of the subject. The Freuch word " gui," meaning mistletoe,
is not of Latin, but of Druidical derivation, and so the Spanish " agui-
naldo," meaning Christmas or New Year's present, conserves the cry,
slightly altered, of the Druid priest to the " gui " at the opening of
the new year.
" Aguillanneuf, et plus clairement, 'au gui, l'au neuf,' on bien
encore, ' l'anguil l'au neuf. ' " — (Le Roux de Lincy, Livre des Proverbes
Francais, 1848, Paris, tome 1, p. 2, quoted in Buckle's "Commonplace
Book," vol. ii. p. 440.)
"The next business was to arrange for the collection of the sacred
plant, and bards were sent forth in all directions to summon the
people to the great religious ceremony. The words of the proclama-
tion are believed to survive in the custom which prevails, especially at
Chartres, the old metropolis of the Druids, of soliciting presents on the
New Year, with the words 'an gui l'au neuf.'" — ("Le Gui de Chene
et les Druides," Magdaleine, quoted by John Elliot Howard, in
"Victoria Society Transactions," vol. xiv.)
"The Celtic name for the oak was 'gue,' or 'guy.' " — (Brand, Pop.
Ant., vol. i. p. 458.)
A writer in "Notes and Queries" shows (vol. ii. p. 163) that the
word mistletoe is " le gui " in French ; the continental Druid was
called Gui, or a Guy, from "cuidare," whence "Guide." At the
THE DRUIDICAL USE OF THE MISTLETOE. Ill
present day, while the mistletoe itself is a charm, the name is a term
of opprobium, — guy, in English.
M. C. H. Gaidoz takes exception to this interpretation. In his
opinion, the words "aguinaldo" and "a gui l'an neuf" are to be de-
rived from the Latin "ad calendas." — (Personal letter, dated Paris,
France, March 11, 1889.)
112 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XVII.
COW DUNG AND COW URINE IN RELIGION.
TIIHE sacrificial value of cow dung and cow urine throughout India
-*- and Thibet is much greater than the reader might be led to infer
from the brief citation already noted from Mas Miiller.
" Hindu merchants in Bokhara now lament loudly at the sight of a
piece of cow's flesh, and at the same time mix with their food, that it
may do them good, the urine of a sacred cow, kept in that place." —
(Erman, "Siberia," London, 1848, vol. i. p. 384.)
Picart narrates that the Brahmins fed grain to a sacred cow, and
afterward searched in the ordure for the sacred grains, which they
picked out whole, drying and administering them to the sick, not
merely as a medicine, but as a sacred thing.1
Not only amoug the people of the lowlands, but among those of
the foot-hills of the Himalayas as well, do these rites find place ; " the
very dung of the cow is eaten as an atonement for siu, and its urine is
used in worship." — (Notes on the Hill Tribes of the Neilgherries,
Short, Trans. Ethnol. Society, London, 1868, p. 2G8.)
" The greatest, or, at any rate, the most convenient of all purifiers
is the urine of a cow ; . . . Images are sprinkled with it. No man
of any pretensions to piety or cleanliness would pass a cow in the
act of staling without receiving the holy stream in his hand and sip-
1 Apres avoir donne du riz en pot, a manger aux vaches ils vont fouiller dans la
liouze et en retirent les grains qu'ils trouvent entiers. Ils font secher ces grains et
les donnent a leurs malades, non senlement comme un remede niais encore comme
line chose sainte. — (Picart, " Coutumes et Ceremonies religieuses," etc., Amster-
dam, 1729, vol. vii. p. 18.)
This is neither better nor worse than the custom of the Indians of Texas,
Florida, and California, herein before described.
Chez les Indiens, la bouze de la vache est tres-sainte. — (Picart, idem, vol. vi.
part 2, pp. 191-193.)
Picart also discloses that the Banians swear by a cow. — {Idem, vol. vii. p. 16.)
A small quantity of the urine (of the cow) is daily sipped by some (of the
Hindus.) — (Asiatic Researches, Calcutta, 1805, vol. viii. p. SI.)
COW DUNG AND COW URINE IN RELIGION. 113
ping a few drops. ... If the animal be retentive, a pious expectant
will impatiently apply his finger, and by judicious tickling excite the
grateful flow." — (Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," London, 1810, p. 143.)
.See, also, note from Forlong, under " Initiation," p. 1G4.
" It may be noted that, according to Lajarde, ' cow's-water ' origi-
nally meant rain-water, the clouds being spoken of as cows. I give
tins for what it is worth. Your collection of facts goes strongly against
the explanation." — (Personal letter from Prof. W. Robertson Smith,
dated Christ College, Cambridge, England, August 11, 1888.)
Speaking of the sacrifice called Poojah, Maurice says : " The Brah-
man prepares a place, which is purified with dried cow-dung, with
which the pavement is spread, and the room is sprinkled with the
urine of the same animal." — (Maurice, " Indian Antiquities," London,
1800, vol. i. p. 77.)
" As in India, so in Persia, the urine of the cow is used in cere-
monies of purification, during which it is drunk." — ("Zoological My-
thology," Angelo de Gubernatis, London, 1872, vol. i. p. 95, quoting
from Anquetil du Perron, " Zendavesta," ii. p. 245.)
Dubois, in his chapter " Restoration to the Caste," says that a
Hindu penitent "must drink the panchakaryam, — a word which lit-
erally signifies the five things, namely, milk, butter, curd, dung, and
urine, all mixed together." And he adds : —
" The urine of the cow is held to be the most efficacious of any for
purifying all imaginable uncleanness. I have often seen the supersti-
tious Hindu accompanying these animals when in the pasture, and
watching the moment for receiving the urine as it fell, in vessels which
he had brought for the purpose, to cany it home in a fresh state ; or,
catching it in the hollow of his hand, to bedew his face and all his
body. When so used it removes all external impurity, and when
taken internally, which is very common, it cleanses all within." —
(Abbe Dubois, "People of India," London, 1817, p. 29.)
Very frequently the excrement is first reduced to ashes. The monks
of Chivem, called Paudarones, smear their faces, breasts, and arms with
the ashes of cow dung ; they run through the streets demanding alms,
very much as the Zufii actors demanded a feast, and chant the praises
of Chivem, while they carry a bundle of peacock feathers in the hand,
and wear the lingam at the neck.1
1 " Les moines de Chivem sont nommes Paudarones. lis se barbouillent le
visage, la poitrine, et les bras avec des cendres de bouse de vaclie ; ils pareourent les
rues, demandent l'aumone et chantent les louanges de Chivem, en portant un pa-
114 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
COW DUNG ALSO USED BY THE ISRAELITES.
" The tribes had not many feelings in common when they came to be
writers and told us what they thought of each other. As a rule, they
bitterly reviled each other's gods and temples. . . . Judeans called
the Samaritan temple, where calves and bulls were holy, in a word of
Greek derivation, ' Pelethos Naos,' ' the dung-hill temple.' . . . The
Samaritans, in return, called the temple of Jerusalem 'the house of
dung.'" — ("Rivers of Life," Forlong, vol. i. p. 162.)
Commentators would be justified in believing that these terms pre-
serve the fact of there having been in these places of worship the
same veneration for dung that is to be found to this day among the
peoples of the East Indies.
In another place Dulaure calls attention to the similar use among
the Hebrews of the ashes of the dung of the red heifer as an expiatory
sacrifice.1
In one of the Hindu fasts the devotee adopts these disgusting ex-
creta as his food. On the fourth day, " his disgusting beverage is the
urine of the cow ; the fifth, the excrement of that holy animal is his
allotted food." — (Maurice, " Indian Antiquities," London, 1800, vol. v.
p. 222.)
" I do not think that you can lay weight on the fact that in Israel,
when a victim was entirely burned, the dung was not exempted
from the fire. I think this only means that the victim was not cleared
of offal, as in sacrifices that were eaten." — (Personal letter from Prof.
W. Robertson Smith, Christ College, Cambridge, England. )
"Refert etiam Waltherus Schulzius (" Oest-Indianische Reise," lib. 3,
cap. 10, 1, m. 188, seq.) certam Indorum sectam Gioghi dictam nullum
assumere cibum, nisi fimo vaccino coctum ; capillos et faciem Croco et
Stercore vaccino inungunt ; nemo etiam in banc societatem admittitur
nisi antea per longum temporis spatium Corpus suum hoc stercore
nutriverit, etc." — (Schurig, " Chylologia," p. 783, quoted in "Biblio-
theca Scatalogica," pp. 93-9G.)
Etmuller, "Opera Omnia," Commentar. Ludovic, Lyons, 1G90, vol.
quet de plumes de paon a la main et le lingam pendu au eou." — (Dulaure, "Des
Divinites Generatrices," Paris, 1825, p. 105.)
1 "Les Hebreux sacrifiaient et faisaient hruler la vache rousse, dont Ies cendres
melees avec de l'eau servaient aux expiations." — (Idem, cap. i. pp. 23, 24.)
" They shall burn in the fire their dung." — (Levit. xvi. 27.)
" Her blood with her dung shall he burn." — (Numbers xix. 5.)
COW DUNG AND COW URINE IN RELIGION. 115
ii. pp. 171, 172, says that the Benjani, an Oriental sect, believers in the
Transmigration of Souls, save the dung of their cows, gathering it up
in their hands.
Rosinus Lentilius, in the " Ephemeridum Pbysico-Medicorum," Leip-
sig, 1694, quotes from the Itinerary of Taveruier, lib. 1, cap. 18, in
regard to the Scyboluphagi Indorum, who, in pursuance of vows to
eat flesh only, scrape up the droppings of horses, bulls, cows, aud
sheep. " Scybolophagi Indorum, de qua Tavernier, quod Benjan;
aliseque mulieres voto semet obstringant soli mauducationi quisqui-
liarum, quas in pecorum, equorum, boum, vaccarum, stercoribus rus-
patione sedula conquirunt. . . . Nee proprie de Honaerda seu humauis
excrementis, quibus Indorum nonnulli cibos condire, iisque ptarmiei
pulvere vice uti, quiu et medicamentis, ceu panaceam, commiscere,
non aversuntur."
Xo mention is made by Marco Polo of the use by the people of India
of cow-dung or urine in any of their religious ceremonies, excepting ODe
example cited under the head of " Industries." But the antiquity of
the rite is demonstrated by the fact that it is frequently alluded to
in the oldest of the canonical books of the people of India.
" Regarding the installation of Yudhisthira (the oldest son of Pandu
and eldest brother of the Pandavas), who became Maharajah after the
defeat and death of the Kauravas on the field of Kuruk-shetra, the Brah-
minical authors of the Maha-Bharata, in its present form, describe
among the ceremonies used on the occasion the following one :" (Con-
densed from the text of J. Talboys Wheeler, " History of India,"
" The Vedic Period and the Maha-Bharata," vol. i. p. 371.) " After this,
the five purifying articles which are produced from the sacred cow —
namely, milk, the curds, ghee, the urine, and the ordure — were brought
up by Krishna and the Maharaja and by the brothers of Yudhisthira,
and poured by them over the heads of Yudhisthira and Draupadi."
" The appearance of Krishna here stamps the narrative with the
characteristic cultus of a period far later than that in which the Yedic
Aryans had used the cow as a religious symbol. The animal was now
sacred to Vishnu, who held no place in the Yedic Pantheon, and his
worship had been sufficiently developed to admit of his incarnation as
Krishna." — (Personal letter from Dr. J. Hampden Porter, dated
Washington, D. C, Sept. 29, 1888.)
De Gubernatis speaks of " the superstitious Hindoo custom of puri-
fying one's self by means of the excrement of a cow. The same custom
passed into Persia ; and the Kharda Avesta has preserved the formula
116 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
to be recited by the devotee while he holds in his hand the urine of an
ox or cow, preparatory to washing his face with it : ' Destroyed, de-
stroyed, be the Demon Ahriman, whose actions and works are cursed.' "
— ("Zoological Mythology," De Gubernatis, pp. 99-100, vol. i.)
" We must complete the explanation of another myth, that of the
excrement of the cow considered as purifying. The moon, as aurora,
yields ambrosia. It is considered to be a cow; the urine of this cow
is ambrosia or holy water ; he who drinks this water purifies himself,
as the ambrosia which rains from the lunar ray and the aurora purifies
and makes clear the path of the sky, which the shadows of night darken
and contaminate.
"The same virtue is attributed, moreover, to cow's dung, a concep-
tion also derived from the cow, and given to the moon as well as to
the morning aurora. These two cows are considered as making the
earth fruitful by means of their ambrosial excrements ; these excre-
ments being also luminous, both those of the moon and those of the
aurora are considered as purifiers. The ashes of these cows which
their friend the heroine preserves are not ashes, but golden powder or
golden flour (the golden cake again occurs in that flour or powder of
gold which the witch demands from the hero in Russian stories) which,
mixed with excrement, brings good fortune to the cunning robber-
hero.
"The ashes of the sacrificed, pregnant cow (i. e., the cow which dies
after having given birth to a calf) were religiously preserved by the
Romans in the Temple of Vesta with bean-stalks, which are used to
fatten the earth sown with corn, as a means of expiation. Ovid men-
tions this rite. (Fasti, iv. 721.) "The ashes of a cow are preserved
both as a symbol of resurrection and as a means of purification." —
("Zool. Mythol.," De Gubernatis, vol. i. pp. 275-277.)
The learned author overlooks in his argument that cows were sacri-
ficed and worshipped in India before they were transferred to the
Zodiac and to the symbolism of the elements.1
1 After the publication of his original pamphlet, the author became acquainted
with the views of Mr. Lang upon this subject. An examination of them, as given
in his "Myth, Ritual, and Religion," vol. ii. p. 137, will show that he perceives
the defect in the explanation given by De Gubernatis in much the same manner as
here expressed.
"The clouds in the atmosphere being often viewed as a herd of cows." — (Intro-
duction to vol. iv. of " Zendavesta," p. 64, James Darmesteter, edition of Oxford,
1880 : "Sacred Books of the East," edited by Max Mailer.)
A personal letter received from W. S. Wyndham, Esq., Boyne Island, Queens-
COW DUNG AND COW URINE IN RELIGION. 117
" Religion, at its base, is the product of imagination working on
early man's wants and fears, and is in no sense supernatural or the
result of any preconceived and deliberate thought or desire to work
out a system of morals. It arose in each case from what appeared to
be the pressing needs of the day or season on the man or his tribe.
The codification and expansion of faiths would then be merely the
slow outcome of the cogitations and teachings of reflective minds,
working usually with a refining tendency on t lie aforesaid primitive
Nature-worship, and in elucidation of its ideas, symbolism, and legends.
Early rude worshippers could not grasp abstractions, nor follow ser-
mons even if they had been preached, and certainly not recondite the-
ories on what the West designates 'Solar,' and other theories." —
(" Rivers of Life," Forlong, vol. i. p. 3fi.)
" In the Shapast la Shayast (Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. part I.)
much stress is laid on bull's urine as a purifier." — (Personal letter
from Professor R. A. Oakes, Watertown, New York, April 20, 18S8.)
" During the last few years we have been treated to a great deal of
foolish gush about the beauty and nobility of Eastern religious. I
don't deny that there are many commendable features about them,
and that they often get near to the heart of true religion, as we under-
stand it. Rut in their practical results they cannot be compared with
Christianity. Take a concrete instance : — •
"The Rev. T. W. Jex-Blake has this to say about Benares, with its
three thousand Hindu temples: 'Step into the city,' he says; 'one
temple swarms with foetid apes ; another is stercorous with cows. The
stench in the passages leading to the temples is frightful ; the filth be-
neath your feet is such that the keenest traveller would hardly care to
face it twice. Everywhere, in the temples, in the little shrines in the
street, the emblem of the Creator is phallic. Round one most pictur-
esque temple, built apparently long since British occupation began,
probably since the battle of Waterloo, runs an external frieze, about
ten feet from the ground, too gross for the pen to describe, — scenes
of vice, natural and unnatural, visible to all the world all day long,
worse than anything in the Lupanar in Pompeii. Nothing that I saw
in India roused me more to a sense of the need of religious renovation
by the Gospel of Christ than what met the eye openly, right and left,
at Benares." ("Tribune," New York, Nov. 11, 1888.)
land, Australia, relates that the tribes of Australia "have the stars laid out the
same as we have, only, instead of the Great Bear, etc., they have the Emu, Kanga-
roo, Dog, and other things and men introduced."
118 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Forty years ago, during a stay of three months in Bombay, I saw
frequently cows wandering in the streets, and Hindu devotees bowing,
and lifting up the tails of the cows, rubbing the wombs of the aforesaid
with the right hand, and afterwards rubbing their own faces with it."
— (Personal letter from Captain Henri Jouan, French Navy, dated
Cherbourg, France, July 29, 1888.)
Almost identical information was communicated by General J. J.
Dana, U. S. Army, who, in the neighborhood of Calcutta, over forty
years ago, had seen Hindu devotees besmeared from head to foot with
human excrement.
Among the superstitious practices of the Greeks, Plutarch mentions
"rolling themselves in dung-hills." ("Morals," Goodwin's trans.,
Boston, 1870, vol. i. p. 171, art. "Superstitions.") Plutarch also
mentions "foul expiations," "vile methods of purgation," " bemirings
at the temple," and speaks of " penitents wrapped up in foul aud nasty
rags," or "rolling naked in the mire," "vile and abject adorations,"
— (pp. 171-180.)
This veneration for the excrement of the cow is to be found among
other races. The Hottentots " besmear their bodies with fat and other
greasy substances over which they rub cow-dung, fat and similar sub-
stances."— (Thurnberg's "Account of the Cape of Good Hope," in
Pinkerton, vol. xvi. pp. 25, 73, 139.
"Every idea and thought of the Diuka is how to acquire and main-
tain cattle; a certain kind of reverence would seem to be paid them;
even their offal is considered of high importance. The dung, which is
burnt to ashes for sleeping in and for smearing their persons, and
the urine, which is used for washing and as a substitute for salt, are
their daily requisites." — (Schweinfurth, "Heart of Africa," vol. i.
p. 58.)
In the religious ceremonies of the Calmuck Lamas, " Les pauvres
jettent au commencement de 1'office, qui dure toute la journee, un pen
d'encens sur de la bouse de vache allumee et portee par un petit trepied
de fer." — ("Voy. de Pallas," vol. i. p. 563.)
ALLEGED USE OF ORDURE IN FOOD BY THE ISRAELITES. 119
XVIII.
ORDUEE ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN USED IN FOOD BY
THE ISRAELITES.
A MOXG the Banians of India, proselytes are obliged by the Brah-
■*■*■ mans to eat cow-dung for six mouths. They begin with one
pound daily, and diminish from day to day. A subtle commentator,
says Picart, might institute a comparison between the nourishment of
these fanatics and the dung of cows which the Lord ordered the
prophet Ezekiel to mingle with his food.1
This was the opinion held bj- Voltaire on this subject. Speaking of
the prophet Ezekiel, he said : " He is to eat bread of barley, wheat,
beans, lentils, and millet, and to cover it with human excrement."2 It
is thus, he says, that the " children of Israel shall eat their bread de-
filed among the nations among which they shall be banished." But
"after having eaten this bread of affliction, God permits him to cover
it with the excrement of cattle simply."
The view entertained by some biblical commentators is that the
excrement was used for baking the bread ; but if this be true, why
should human f.eces be used for such a purpose? (Consult Lange's
Commentaries, article " Ezekiel," and McClintock and Strong's Cyclo-
paedia, article " Dung.")
1 Disons an mot de la maniere dont les Proselytes des Banians sont obliges de
vivre les premiers mois de lenr conversion. Les Brahmines leur ordonneut de
ineler de la fiente de la vache dans tout ce qu'ils mangent pendant ce terns de re-
generation. . . . Que ne diroit pas ici un commentateur subtil qui voudroit com-
parer la nourriture de ces proselytes avec les ordres que Dieu donna autrefois a
Ezechiel de meler de la fiente de vache dans ses alimens. Ezekiel iv. — (Picart,
" Coutumes et ceremonies religieuses," etc., Amsterdam, 1729, vol. vii. p. 15.)
2 " II doit manger du pain, du froment, d'orge, de feves, de millets, et de couvrir
d'excremens humains," etc. — (Voltaire, " Essais sur les Mceurs," vol. i. p. 195,
Paris, 1795).
"And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that
cometh out of man in their sight." — (Ezekiel iv. 12.)
120 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" For mere filth, what can be fouler than 2 Kings xviii. 27, Isaiah
xxxvi. 12, and Ezekiel iv. 12-15 (where the Lord changes human
ordure into ' cow chips')? ' Ce qui excuse Dieu,' said Henri Bayle,
'ce qu'il u'existe pas.' I add, as man has made him." — (Richard F.
Burton, " Terminal Essay " to his edition of the " Arabian Nights,"
vol. x. p. 181, foot-note, London, 1886.")
Bayle does not allude to the baking of bread with ordure in his brief
article upon the prophet Ezekiel ; neither does Prof. J. Stuart Blaikie
in his more comprehensive dissertation in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
article " Ezekiel."
" The use of dung by the ancient Israelites is collected incidcntally
from the passage in which the prophet Ezekiel, being commanded, as a
symbolic action, to bake his bread with dung, excuses himself from the
use of an unclean thing, and is permitted to employ cow's dung instead."
— (Strong and McClintock's " Cyclopaedia of Biblical and Classical
Literature," New York, 1868, vol. ii. article " Dung.")
" I fear that Voltaire cannot be taken as an authority on Hebrew
matters. I believe that the passage from Ezekiel is correctly rendered
in the revised edition, where at verse 15 'thereon' is substituted for
' therewith' of the old version. The use of dried cow's-dung as fuel is
common among the poorer classes in the East ; and in a siege, fuel, al-
ways scarce, would be so scarce that a man's dung might have to be
used. I do not think that one need look further for the explanation of
verses 15-17; the words of verse 15 are not ambiguous, and that used
for dung is the same as the Arabs still apply to the dried cakes of cow's
dung used for fuel. Voltaire and Picart both seem to have used the
Vulgate, in which verse 12 is wrongly rendered." — (Personal letter
from Prof. W. Robertson Smith, Cambridge, England.) '
" Les nombreux exemples qui precedent rendeut moins interessante
la question de savoir an Ezechias stercus comederit ; ce ne serait qu'im
mangeur de plus. Pourtant on peut voir dans la Bible le verset 12
du chap. iv. de ce prophete : ' et quasi sub cinericium hordaceum comedes
illud et stercore quod egreditur de homine operies illud in oculis eorum ; '
et les diverses interpretations donnees par les differents traducteurs et
commentateurs." — (Bibliotheca Scatalogica, pp. 93-96.)
Schurig consacre nn paragraphe a, discuter an Ezechias stercus come-
derit.— (Idem, p. 39.)
Just exactly what Schurig thought on this subject may be stated
in his own words. Although not positive, he inclines to the opinion
that Ezekiel did eat excrement : —
ALLEGED USE OF ORDURE IN FOOD BY THE ISRAELITES. 121
" Denique, mandato divino, Propheta Ezechiel, cap. iv. ver. 12, pla-
centam hordeacoam cum stercore lmtnano parasse atque comcdisse
prima intuitu videtur, juxta versionem Lutheri. . . . Juxta Junium
et Tremellium allegata verba sic sonant : Coraedes cibum ut placen-
tam hordeaceam, et ad orbes excrementi humani parabis placentam
istatn in oculis illorum. Juxta Sebastianum Schmidium : Sicut placen-
tam liordeorum comedes eum ; quod ad ipsum tamen, cum stercore fiini
hominis facies in oculis eorum. Bene etiam hunc locum explicat
Textus Gallicus mere editionis : Tu mangeras de fouaces d'orge, et les
cuiras avec la fiente qui sort hors de l'hoiume eux le voyans." —
(" Chylologia," Dresden, 1725, pp. 782, 783.)
" Ezekiel says that his God told him to lie for three hundred and
ninety days on his left side, and then forty days on his right side,
when ' he would lay hands on him and turn him from one side to an-
other ; ' also that daring all this period he was only to eat barley bread
baked in too disgusting a manner to be described." — (" Rivers of
Life," Forlong, vol. ii. p. 597.)
"This last command was, however, so strongly resented that his
Deity somewhat relaxed it." — (Idem.)
The most rational explanation of this much-disputed and ambiguous
passage must necessarily be such as can be deduced from a considera-
tion of Ezekiel's environment.
Giving due weight to every doubt, there remains this feature: the
prophet unquestionably was influenced and actuated by the ideas of
his day and generation, which looked upon the humiliations to which
he subjected himself as the outward manifestations of an inward
spirituality.
Psychological^7 speaking, there is no great difference between the
consumption of human excrement and the act of lying on one's side for
three hundred and ninety days ; both are indications of the same
perverted cerebration, mistaken with such frequency for piety and
holiness.
" Isaiah had periods of indecent maniacal outbursts ; for we are told
that he once went about stark naked for three years, because so com-
manded by the Lord." — ("Rivers of Life," vol. ii. p. 537, quoting
Isaiah xx. 2, 3.)
THE SACRED COW'S EXCRETA A SUBSTITUTE FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE.
The foregoing testimony, which could readily be swelled in volume,
proves the sacred character of these excreta, which may be looked upon
122 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
as substitutes for a more perfect sacrifice. In the early life of the
Hindus it is more than likely that the cow or the heifer was slaugh-
tered by the knife or burnt ; as population increased in density, do-
mestic cattle became too costly to be offered as a frequeut oblation,
and on the principle that the part represents the whole, hair, milk, but-
ter, urine, and ordure superseded the slain carcass, while the inciner-
ated excrement was made to do duty as a burnt sacrifice.1
It was hardly probable that such practices, or an explanation of the
causes which led to their adoption and perpetuation, should have
escaped the keen criticism of E. B. Tylor.
" For the means of some of his multifarious lustrations, the Hiudu
has recourse to the sacred cow. . . . The Parsi religion prescribes a
system of lustration which well shows its common origin with that of
Hinduism by its similar use of cow's urine and water. . . . Applica-
tions of nirang, washed off with water, form part of the daily religious
rites, as well as of such special ceremonies as the naming of the new-
born child, the putting on of the sacred cord, the purification of the
mother after childbirth, and the purification of him who has touched
a corpse." — (E. B. Tylor, " Primitive Culture," Loudon, 1871, vol. ii.
pp. 396, 397.)
" It will help us to realize how the sacrifice of an animal may atone
for a human life, if we notice in South Africa how a Zulu will redeem
a lost child from the finder by a bullock, or a Kimbunda will expiate
the blood of a slave by the offering of an ox, whose blood will wash
away the other. For instauces of the animal substituted for man in
sacrifice, the following may serve: Among the Khonds of Orissa, where
Colonel MacFherson was engaged in putting down the sacrifice of human
victims by the sect of the Earth-goddess, they at once began to discuss
the plan of sacrificing cattle by way of substitutes. Now, there is
some reason to think that this same course of ceremonial change may
account for the following sacrificial practice in the other Khond sect.
It appears that those who worship the Light-god hold a festival in his
honor, when they slaughter a buffalo in commemoration of the time
when, as they say, the Earth-goddess was prevailing on men to offer
1 Such an economic tendency in the sacrificial practices of the Parsis is shown
by Tylor. The Vedic sacrifice, Agnishtoma, required that animals should be slain
ami their flesh partly committed to the gods by fire, partly eaten by saerificers and
priests. The Parsi ceremony, Izesbne, formal successor of this bloody rite, requires
no animal to be killed, but it suffices to place the hair of an ox in a vessel, and
show it to the fire. — ("Primitive Culture," E. B. Tylor, New York, 1S74, vol. ii.
p. 400.)
ALLEGED USE OF ORDUKE IN FOOD BY THE ISRAELITES. 123
human sacrifices to her, but the Light-god sent a tribe-deity who
crushed the bloody-minded Earth-goddess nuder a mountain and
dragged a buflalo out of the jungle, saying, ' Liberate the man, and
sacrifice the buflalo.' It looks as though this legend, divested of its
mvthic srarb, may really record a historical substitution of animal for
human sacrifice. In Ceylon, the exorcist will demand the name of the
demon possessing a demoniac, and the patient in frenzy answers, giving
the demon's name, ' I am So-and-so ; I demand a human sacrifice, and I
will not go without.' The victim is promised, the patient comes to
from the fit, and a few weeks later the sacrifice is made ; but instead
of a man they offer a fowl. Classic examples of a substitution of this
sort may be found in the sacrifice of a doe for a virgin to Artemis in
Laodicsea, a goat for a boy to Diouysos at Potniffi.
" There appears to be a Semitic connection here, as there clearly is in
the story of the ^Eolians of Teuedos sacrificing to Melikertes (Melkarth)
instead of a new-born child a new-born calf, shoeing it with buskins and
tending the mother cow as if a human mother." — (Idem, vol. ii.
p. 366 ; or in Xew York edition, 1879, vol. ii. pp. 403, 404.)
"0 Maker of the material world, thou Holy One ! which is the urine
wherewith the corpse-bearers shall wash their hair and their bodies 1
Is it of sheep or of oxen I Is it of man or of woman 1
" Ahura Mazda answered : It is of sheep or of oxen, not of man nor
of woman, except these two, the nearest kinsman (of the dead) or his
nearest kinswoman. The worshippers of Mazda shall therefore pro-
cure the urine wherewith the corpse-bearers shall wash their hair and
their bodies." — (Fargard vii., Aveudidad, Zeudavesta, Oxford, 1890,
p. 96.)
" A prince may sacrifice his enemy, having first invoked the axe with
holy texts, by substituting a buflalo or goat, calling the victim by the
name of the enemy throughout the whole ceremony." — (''The San-
guinary Chapter," translated from the " Calica Purana," in vol. 5,
'• Transactions Asiatic Society," 4th edition, London, 1807, p. 386.)
" An interesting chapter of the Aitareya-brahruanam, on the sacrifice
of animals, shows us how, next to man, the horse was the supreme
sacrifice offered to the gods ; how the cow afterwards took the place of
the horse, the sheep of the cow, the goat of the sheep ; and at last
vegetable products were substituted for animals, — a substitution or
cheating of the gods in the sacrifice, which perhaps explains even more
the fraud of which, in popular stories, the simpleton is always the vic-
tim ; the simpleton hero being the god himself, and the cheater man,
124 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
who changes, under a sacred pretext, the noblest and most valued ani-
mals for common and less valued ones, and finally for vegetables ap-
parently of no value whatever. In Hindu codes of law we have the
same fraudulent substitution of animals under a legal pretext. ' The
killer of a cow,' saj-s the code attributed to Yaguavalkyas, 'must stay
a month in penitence, drinking the panchakaryam ' (that is, the five
good productions of the cow, which, according to Manus, are milk, curds,
butter, urine, and dung), sleeping in a stable, and following the cows.' "
— ("Zool. Mythol.," De Gubernatis, vol. i. pp. 44, 45.)
" The sacred books of the Hindus contain the most formal and de-
tailed instructions about human sacrifices, and on what occasions and
with what ceremonies they are to be offered ; sometimes on an enor-
mous scale, — as many as one hundred and fifty human victims at one
sacrifice." — Ragozin, "Assyria," New York, 1887, pp. 127-128.
Continuing, Ragozin says : " When bloody sacrifices, even of animals,
were in great part abolished, and offerings of cakes of rice and wheat
were substituted, the humane change was authorized by a parable
which told how the sacrificial virtue had left the highest and most
valuable victim, man, and descended into the horse, from the horse
iuto the steer, from the steer into the goat, from the goat into the sheep,
and from that at last passed into the earth, where it was found abiding
in the grains of rice and wheat laid in it for seed.
"This was an ingenious way of intimating that hencefortli harm-
less offerings of rice and wheat cakes would be as acceptable to the
deity as the living victims, human and animal, formerly were." —
(Idem, p. 128.)
As the animal victim became more and more valuable, we have seen
that its excreta were offered in its place.
The Celtic stock, it is now generally admitted, represents a very early
migration from India. Exactly when this migration began and was
completed we have no means of determining ; but we may safely say,
judging from the prominence in Celtic folk-lore of the chicken-dung,
that it did not occur until the cultus of India was beginuing to cast
about for some suitable substitute for human sacrifice.1
1 Dubois declares that in the Atharvana Veda "bloody sacrifices of victims
(human not excepted) are there prescribed." (" People of India," London,
1817, p. 341.) And in those parts of India where human sacrifice had been
abolished a substitutive ceremony was practised " by forming a human figure of
flour paste or clay, which they carry into the temple, and there cut off its head and
mutilate it in various ways, in presence of the idols." — (Idem, p. 490.)
ALLEGED USE OF ORDURE IN FOOD BY THE ISRAELITES. 125
Inman takes the ground that the very same substitution occurred
among the Hebrews. Commenting upon 1 Kings xix. 18, he says :
" In the Vulgate the passage is thus rendered : 'They say to these,
Sacrifice the men who adore the calve3;' while the Septuagint rea-
ders the words, ' Sacrifice men, for the calves have come to au end,'
indicating a reversion to human sacrifice." — (Inman, "Ancient Faiths
Embodied in Ancient Names," Loudon, 1878, article " Hosea.")
" He that killeth an ox as if he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth a
lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck ; he that offereth an oblation as if he
offered swine's blood ; he that burueth incense as if he blessed an idol."
— (Isaiah lxvi. 3. Reference given to the above by Prof. W. Robert-
son Smith.)
" In the earliest period the horse seems to have been the favorite
animal for sacrifice." — ("Teutonic Mythology," Jacob Grimm, vol. i.
p. 47.)
" The Brahmans show how, in Hindostan, the lower animals became
vicarious substitutes for man in sacrifice." — ('' Myth, Ritual, and
Religion," Andrew Lang, vol. ii. p. 40, footnote.)
If the cow have displaced a human victim, may it not be within
the limits of probability that the ordure and urine of the sacred
bovine are substitutes, not only for the complete carcass, but that they
symbolize a former use of human excreta?1 The existence of ur-orgies
has been indicated in Siberia, where the religion partakes of many of
the characteristics of Buddhism.2 The minatory phraseology of the
Brahminical inhibition of the use of the fungi which enter into these
orgies has been given verbatim ; so that, even did no better evidence
exist, enough has been presented to open up a wide range of dis-
cussion as to the former area of distribution of loathsome and dis-
gusting ceremonials, which are now happily restricted to small and
constantly diminishing zones.
HUMAN ORDURE AND URINE STILL USED IN INDIA.
It is well to remember, however, that in India the more generally
recognized efficacy of cow urine and cow dung has not blinded tho
1 After the Jews had been humbled by the Lord, and made to mingle human
ordure with their bread, the punishment was mitigated by substitution. "Then
he said unto me, Lo ! I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt
prepare thy bread therewith." — Ezekiel iv. 15.
2 Pallas believed "que le lamaisme des Kalmouks Mongols est originaire des
Indes." — (Voy. de Pallas, vol. i. p. 535.)
126 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
fanatical devotee to the necessity of occasionally having recourse to
the human product.
" At about ten leagues to the southward of Seringapatam there is a
village called Nan-ja-na-gud, in which there is a temple famous all over
the Mysore. Amongst the number of votaries of every caste who
resort to it, a great proportion consists of barren women, who bring
offerings to the god of the place, and pray for the gift of fruitfuluess
in return. But the object is not to be accomplished by the offerings
and prayers alone, the disgusting part of the ceremony being still to
follow. On retiring from the temple, the woman and her husband
repair to the common sewer to which all the pilgrims resort in obe-
dience to the calls of nature. There the husband and wife collect,
with their hands, a quantity of the ordure, which they set apart, with
a mark upon it, that it may not be touched by any one else ; and with
their fingers in this condition, they take the water of the sewer in
the hollow of their hands and drink it. Then they perform ablution
and retire. In two or three days they return to the place of filth to
visit the mass of ordure which they left. They turn it over with their
hands, break it, and examine it in every possible way ; and, if they
find that any insects or vermin are engendered in it, they consider it
a favorable prognostic for the woman." — (Abbe Dubois, " People of
India," London, 1817, p. 41 1.)1
1 Previous notes upon the Grand Lama of Thibet, and upon the abominable
practices of the Agozis and Gurus seem to be pertinent in this connection.
See pp. 40-42.
EXCREMENT GODS OF ROMANS AND EGYPTIANS. 127
XIX.
EXCREMENT GODS OF ROMANS AND EGYPTIANS.
T^HE Romans and Egyptians went farther than this; they had gods
of excrement, whose special function was the care of latrines and
those who frequented them. Torquemada, a Spanish author of high
repute, expresses this in very plain language : —
" I assert that they used to adore (as St. Clement writes to St. James
the Less) stinking and filthy privies and water-closets; and, what is
viler and yet more abominable, and an occasion for our tears and not
to be borne with or so much as mentioned by name, they adored the
noise and wind of the stomach when it expels from itself any cold or
flatulence ; and other things of the same kind, which, according to the
same saint, it would be a shame to name or describe."1
In the preceding lines Torquemada refers to the Egyptians only,
but, as will be seen by examining the Spanish notes below, his
language is almost the same when speaking of the Romans.3 The
Roman goddess was called Cloacina. She was one of the first of the
Roman deities, and is believed to have been named by Romulus him-
self. Under her chargo were the various cloaca;, sewers, privies, etc.,
of the Eternal City.3
1 Digo que adoraban (segnn San Clemente escrive a Santiago el menor), las he-
diondas y sucias necesarias y latrinas ; y Io que es peor y mas abominable y digno
de llorar y no de sufrir, ni nombrarle por su nombre, que adoraban, el estmendo y
rrugimiento, que hace el vientre quando despide de si alguna frialdad 6 ventosidad
y otras semejantes, que segun el mismo santo es verguenza nombrarlas y deeirlas.
— (Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, lib. vi. chap. 13, Madrid, 1723.)
2 Los Romanos . . . constituieron Diosa a los hediondas necesarias 6 latrinas y
la adoraban y consagraban y ofrecian sacrificios. — (Idem, lib. vi. chap. 16, Madrid,
1723.)
3 There is another opinion concerning Cloacina — that she was one of the names
given to a statue of Venus found in the Cloaca Maxima. Smith, in his Dictionary
of Antiquities, London, 1850, expresses this view, and seems to be followed by the
American and Britannic Encyclopaedias. Lempriere defines Cloacina : " A goddess
of Rome, who presided over the Cloaca? — some suppose her to be Venus — whose
128 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Les anciens avaient fait plusieurs divinites du Stercus ; 1. Siercus
ou Sterces, pere de Picus, iuventeur de la methode de fumer les ter-
res (S. August. De Civ. Dei, lib. xviii. cap. 15). 2. Sterculius
(Macrob., Saturn, lib. i. cap. 7) ; 3. Steroutius (Lactant. de fal. reb.),
Stercutus, Sterquilinus, Sterquiline, divinites qui presidaient aux en-
grais. Quelques persounes croient que c'etait un surnom de Saturne
comme inventeur de l'agriculture ; d'autres y reconnaissent la terre
clle-nieme. Pline dit que ce dieu utait fils du dieu Faune et petit-fils
de Picus, roi des Latins. — (Pline, lib. xvii. cap. 9, num. 40 ; Persius,
sut. i. ver. 3.)
" On lionore aussi Faunus avec les deux derniers snrnoms." — (Pline,
loo. cit. Bib. Scat.)
" Consultez sur cette deese en l'honneur de laquelle on a frappe des
medailles, Lactant. Instit. lib. i. cap. 20, p. 11; St. Cyp. Van. d. id.
cap. 2, par. 6 ; Minutius Felix, Oct. cap. 25 ; Pline, Hist. Nat. lib. xiv.
cap. 29 ; Tite Live, 3, 48 ; Banier, Myth, tome i. 348 ; iv. 329, 338 ; "
— (Bib. Scat. p. 43, footnote.)
As far as possible, the above citations were verified ; the edition of
St. Augustine consulted was that of the Reverend Maurice Dods,
Edinburgh, 1871.
" Tat ins both discovered and worshipped Cloacina." — (Minutius
Felix, " Octavius," cap. xxv., edition of Edinburgh, 18G9.)
" Colatina, alias Clocina, was goddess of the stools, the jakes, and
the privy, to whom, as to every of the rest, there was a peculiar
temple edified." — (Reginald Scot, " Discovery of Witchcraft," 1 lib. 16,
cap. 22, giving a list of the Roman gods.)
statue was found in the Cloacne, whence the name." — (See, also, in Anthon's
( lassical Dictionary. )
Higgins says that " the famous statue of Venus Cloacina was found in them
(the Cloaca? Maxima?) by Romulus." — (Anacalypsis, footnote to p. 624, London,
1S36.)
Torquemada insists that the Romans borrowed this goddess from the Egyptians :
"A esta diosa llamaion Cloacina, Diosa que presidia en sus albanares y los guardaba,
que son los lugares donde van a parar todas las suciedades, inmundicias, y vasco-
sidades de una Republic*." — (Torquemada, lib. vi. chap. 17.)
Torquemada, who makes manifest in His writings an intimate acquaintance with
Creek and Roman mythology, fortifies his position by references from St. Clem-
ent, Itinerar., lib. 5 ; Lactantius, Divinas Ejus, lib. 1, chap. 20 : Epistle of St.
Clement to St. James the Less, Eusebius, de Preparatione Evangel., chap. 1 ; St.
Augustine, Civ. Dei, lib. 2, chap. 22 ; Diod. Sic, lib. 1, chap. 2, and lib. 2, chap.
4 ; Lucian, Dialogues, Cicero, de Nat. Deornm, Pliny, lib. 10, chap. 27, and lib.
11, chap. 21 ; Theodoret, lib. 3, de Evangelii veritatis cognitione.
EXCREMENT GODS OF ROMANS AND EGYPTIANS. 129
The following epigram is taken from Harington's " Ajax," p. xviii. :
" The Komans, ever counted superstitious,
Adored with high titles of divinity,
Dame Cloacina and the Lord Stercutius, —
Two persons, in their state, of great affinity."
For further references to Cloacina, see p. 264.
"Stercus. Dieu particulier qui presidait a la garde-robe. Ce dernier
nous rappelle qu'a l'art. Scopetarius, num. Ill, nous avons dit quel-
ques mots de Cloacine, deese des egouts.
"On trouve encore dans Aruobe un dieu Latrinus duquel il dit:
'Quis Latrinus prresidem latrinis?'" — (Adv. Gent. lib. 4.)
" Horace et tons les poetes du temps d'Auguste, parlent de Stercus
et ses circonstances et dependances en cent endroits de leurs ouvrages.
Martial, Catulle, Petrone, Macrobe, Lucrece, en saupoudrent leurs
poesies ; Homere, Pline, Lampride en parlent a. ciel et a cceurs con-
verts ; Saint Jerome et Saint Augustin ne dedaignent pas d'en entre-
tenir leurs lecteurs." — (Bibliotheca Scatalogica, pp. 1, 2.)
" Dans Plautus, Aristophane fait dire per Carion que le dieu Es-
culape aime et mange la merde : il est merdivore, comme ecrit le tra-
ducteur latin; Prave dieu, comme Sganarelle, qui a dit ce mot sacra-
mentel et profond, — 'La matiere est-elle louable?' II trouve dans
les excrements le secret des souffrauces humaines. Son tre'pied pro-
phetique et medical, c'est line chaise percee. — (Idem, p. 66.)
"Sterculius. (Myth.) surnom donnd a, Saturne, parcequ'il fut lo
premier qui apprit aux homines a fumer les terres pour les rendre fer-
tiles." — (" Encyc. Raisonne des Sciences," etc., Neufchatel, 1765,
tome quinzieme, art. "Sterculius.")
The Komans " had a god of ordure named Stercutius ; one for other
conveniences, Crepitus ; a goddess for the common sewers, Cloacina."
— (Banier, "Mythology," vol. i. p. 199.)
" Sterculius was one of the surnames given to Saturn because he was
the first that had laid dung upon lands to make them fertile." — (Idem,
vol. ii. p. 540.)
THE ASSYRIAN VENUS HAD OFFERINGS OF DUNG PLACED UPON HER
ALTARS.
Another authority states that " the zealous adorers of Siva rub the
forehead, breast, and shoulders with ashes of cow-dung," and, further,
he adds : " It is very remarkable that the Assyrian Venus, according to
9
130 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Lucian, had also offerings of dung placed upon her altars." — (Maurice,
"Indian Antiquities," London, 1800, vol. i. pp. 172, 173.) *
THE MEXICAN GODDESS SUCHIQUECAL EATS ORDURE.
The Mexicans had a goddess, of whom we read the following: —
Father Fabreya says, in his commentary on the Codex Borgianus, that
the mother of the human race is there represented in a state of humilia-
tion, eating cuitlatl (kopros, Greek). The vessel in the left hand of
Suchiquecal contains " mierda," according to the interpreter of these
paintings. — (See note to p. 120, Kingsborough's "Mexican Antiqui-
ties," vol. iv.)
The Spanish mierda, like the Greek iopros, means ordure.
Besides Suchiquecal, the mother of the gods, who has been repre-
sented as eating excrement in token of humiliation, the Mexicans had
other deities whose functions were more or less clearly complicated
with alvine dejections. The most prominent of these was Ixcuiua
called, also, Tlaeolteotl, of whom Brassenr de Bourbourg speaks in
these terms : The goddess of ordure, or Tlaeolquaui, the eater of ordure,
because she presided over loves and carnal pleasures.3
Mendieta mentions her as masculine, and in these terms : The god
of vices and dirtinesses, whom they called Tlazulteotl.8
Bancroft speaks of " the Mexican goddess of carnal love, called Tla-
zoltecotl, Ixcuina, Tlacloquani," etc., and says that she "had in
her service a crowd of dwarfs, buffoons, and hunchbacks, who diverted
her with their songs and dances and acted as messengers to such gods
as she took a fancy to. The last name of this goddess means " eater
of filthy things," referring, it is said, to her fuuction of hearing and
pardoning the confessions of men and women guilty of unclean and
1 "Is Maurice's reference to Lucian correct? There is nothing of the kind in
the Dea Syra, nor can I find it elsewhere in his works, though the Index by Iientz
is practically a Concordance. Still, I do not affirm thai it is not there." — (Per-
sonal letter from professor W. Robertson Smith, Christ College, Cambridge,
England.)
By a reference to page 36, it will be seen that Sakya-muni eats his own excre-
ment, and one of the Bourkans or gods of the Kalmucks is represented as addicted
to the same filthy habit.
2 Tlaeolteotl, la deese de l'ordure, ou Tlacolquani, la mangeiise d'ordure, parce-
qu'elle presidait aux amours et aux plaisirs lubriques. — (Brasseur de Bourbourg,
introduction to Landa, French edition, Paris, 1S64, p. 87.)
8 El dios de los vicios y sneiedades que le decian Tlazulteotl. — (Mendieta, in
Icazbalceta, Mexico, 1870, vol. i. p. 81.)
EXCREMENT GODS OF ROMANS AND EGYPTIANS. 131
carnal crimes. — (Bancroft, H. H. " Native Races of the Pacific Slope,"
vol. iii. p. 380.)
In the manuscript explaining the Codex Telleriano, given in Kings-
borough's "Mexican Antiquities," vol. v. p. 131, occurs the name of
the goddess Ochpaniztli, whose feast fell on the 12th of September of
our calendar. She was described as " the one who sinned by eatiug
the fruit of the tree." The Spanish monks styled her, as well as
another goddess, Tlacolteotl, — "La diosa de basura 6 pecado." But
"basura" is not the alternative of sin (pecado); it means "dung,
manure, ordure, excrement." ' It is possible that, in their zeal to dis-
cover analogies between the Aztec and Christian religions, the early
missionaries passed over a number of points now left to conjecture.
In the same volume of Kingsborough, p. 13G, there is an allusion
to the offerings or sacrifices made Tepeololtec, "que, en romance,
quiere decir sacrificios de mierda," which, " in plain language, signifies
sacrifices of excrement. Nothing further can be adduced upon the
subject, although a note at the foot of this page, in Kingsborough,
says that here several pages of the Codex Talleriano had been obliter-
ated or mutilated, probably by some over-zealous expurgator.
Deities, created in the ignorance or superstitious fears of devotees,
are essentially man-like in their attributes ; where they are depicted as
cruel and sanguinary toward their enemies, the nation adoring them,
no matter how pacific to-day, was once cruel and sanguinary likewise.
Anthropophagous gods are worshipped only by the descendants of
1 According to Neumann and Baretti's Velasquez, while, according to the Dic-
tionary of the Spanish Academy, the meaning is "the dirt and refuse collected in
sweeping, — the sweepings and dung of stables." The same idea has since heen
found in an extract from an ancient writer, given in "Melusine," May 6, 1888. —
(Paris, Gaidoz. )
" Lcs Esprits forts de 1'Antiquite Classique. Eusebe, dans sa ' Preparation Bvan-
gelique ' (XIII. 13), cite quelques vers de Xenophane de Colnphone sur l'unite et
l'immortalite de Dieu qui ne peut ressembler aux hommes ni en forme ni en esprit.
Ces vers se terminent ainsi :
' Mais si Ies bceufs et les lions avaient des mains, — s'ils savaient dessiner avec ces
mains, et produire les memes oeuvres que les hommes, — ils (les dieux) seraient sem-
blables anx bceufs pour les bceufs et semblables aux chevaux pour les chevaux. Et
ceux-ci dessineraient les figures des dieux et ils leur feraient des corps semblables
h ceux qu'ils ont eux-memes.'" — Patrologie Grecque de Migne, t. xxi. col. 1121,
H. G. — Voir aussi J. Bizouard " Rapports de l'homme avec le demon," Paris, 1864,
concus dans le meme esprit.")
Andrew Lang regards Tlazolteotl as the "Aphrodite of Mexico." — ("Myth,
Fit., and Relig." vol. ii. p. 42.)
132 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
cannibals, and excrement-eaters only by the progeny of those who
were not unacquainted with human ordure as an article of food.
ISRAELITISH DUNG GODS.
Dulaure quotes from a number of authorities to show that the Israel-
ites and Moabites had the same ridiculous and disgusting ceremonial in
their worship of Bel-phegor. The devotee presented his naked poste-
rior before the altar and relieved his entrails, making an offering to the
idol of the foul emanations.1 Dung gods are also mentioned as having
been known to the choseu people during the time of their idolatry.2
Mr. John Frazer, LL.D., describing the ceremony of initiation, known
to the Australians as the " Bora,'' and which he defines to be " certain
ceremonies of initiation through which a youth passes when he reaches
the age of puberty to qualify him for a place among the men of the
tribe and for the privileges of manhood. By these ceremonies he is
made acquainted with his father's gods, the mythical lore of the tribe
1 L'adorateur presentait devant l'autel son posterieur nu, soulageait ses entrailles
et faisait a l'idole une offrande de sa puante dejection. — (Dulaure, " Des Divinites
Generatrices," Paris, 1825, p. 76.)
Philo says the devotee of Baal-Peor presented to the idol all the outward orifices
of the body. Another authority says that the worshipper not only presented all
these to the idol, but that the emanations or excretions were also presented, — tears
from the eyes, wax from the ears, pus from the nose, saliva from the mouth, and
urine and dejecta from the lower openings. This was the god to which the Jews
joined themselves ; and these, in all probability, were the ceremonies they practised
in his worship. — (Robert Allen Campbell, Phallic Worship, St. Louis, 1888, p. 171. )
Still another authority says the worshipper, presenting his bare posterior to the
altar, relieved his bowels, and offered the result to the idol: " Eo quod distende-
bant coram illo foramen podicis et stercus olferebaut." — (Haigrave Jennings,
Phallicism, London, 1884, quoting Rabbi Solomon Jarehi, in his Commentary on
Numbers xxv. )
These two citations go to show that the worshipper intended making not a merely
ceremonial offering of flatulence, but an actual oblation of excrement, such as has
been stated, was placed upon the altars of their near neighbors, the Assyrians, in the
devotions tendered their Venus.
2 Ye have seen dung gods, wood and stone. — (Deut. xxix. 17. See Cruden's
Concordance, Articles " Dung " and " Dungy," but no light is thrown upon the ex-
pression. )
And ye have seen their abominations and their idols (detestable things), wood
and stone, silver and gold, which were among them. — ( Lange's Commentary on
Deuteronomy, edited by Dr. Philip Schaff, New York, 1879. But in footnote one
reads: "Margin — dungy gods from the shape of the ordure, literally thin clod3
or balls, or that which can be rolled about. — A. G.")
EXCREMENT GODS OF ROMAN'S AND EGYPTIANS. 133
aud the duties required of him as a mau. . . . The whole is under the
tutelage of a high spirit called ' Dharamooluu.' . . . But, present at
these ceremonies, although having no share in them, is an evil spirit
called ' Gunungdhukhya,' ' eater of excrement,' whom the blacks greatly
dread." Compare this word " Gunungdhukhya," with the Sanskrit
root-word " Gu," "excrement;" " Dhuk " is the Australian "to eat."
— (Personal letter from John Frazer, Esq., LL.D., dated Sydney, New
South Wales, Dec. 24, 1889. Continuing his remarks upon the subject
of the evil spirit " Gunungdhukhya," he says : " This being is certainly
supposed to eat ordure ; and such is the meaning of his name.")
King James gravely informs us that " Witches ofttimes confesse that
in their worship of the Devil. . . . Their form of adoration to be the
kissing of his hinder parts." — (" Dasnionologie," London, 1616, p.
113.) This book appeared with a commendatory preface from Hinton,
oue of the bishops of the English Church.
" Witches paid homage to the devil who was present, usually in the
form of a goat, dog, or ape. To him they offered themselves, body and
soul, and kissed him under the tail, holding a lighted candle." —
(" History of the Inquisition," Henry C. Lea, New York, 1888, vol. iii.,
p. 500.)
Knowing of the existence of "duug gods" among Romans, Egyp-
tians, Hebrews, and Moabites, it is not unreasonable to insist, in the
present case, upon a rigid adherence to the text, and to assert that,
where it speaks of a sacrifice as a sacrifice of excrement and designates
a deity as an eater of excrement, it means what it says, and should not
be distorted, under the plea of symbolism, into a perversion of facts
and ideas.
Some writers made out the name of the god " Belzebul " to be iden-
tical with "Beelzebub," and to mean "Lord of Dung," but this inter-
pretation is disputed by Schaff-Herzog. — ("Encyclopaedia of Religious
Knowledge," New York, article " Beelzebub.")
134 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XX.
LATRINES.
rPHE mention of the Roman goddess Cloacina suggests an inquiry
-"- into the general history of latrines and urinals. Their introduc-
tion cannot be ascribed to purely hygienic considerations, since many
nations of comparative!}- high development have managed to get along
without them ; while, on the other hand, tribes in low stages of cul-
ture have resorted to them.
In the chapter treating upon witchcraft and incantation enough tes-
timony has been accumulated to convince the most sceptical that the
belief was once widely diffused of the power possessed by sorcerers, et id
omne genus, over the unfortunate wretches whose excreta, solid or liquid,
fell into their hands ; terror may, therefore, have been the impelling
motive for scattering, secreting, or preserving in suitable receptacles
the alvine dejections of a community. Afterwards, as experience
taught men that in these egestse were valuable fertilizers for the fields
and vineyards, or fluids for bleaching and tanning, the political authori-
ties made their preservation a matter of legal obligation.
The Trojans defecated in the full light of day, if we can credit the
statement made to that effect in the " Bibliotheca Scatalogica," p. 8, in
which it is shown that a French author (name not given) wrote a
facetious but erudite treatise upon this subject.
Captain Cook tells us that the Xew Zealauders had privies to every
three or four of their houses ; he also takes occasion to say that there
were no privies in Madrid until 1760 ; that the determination of the
king to introduce them and sewers, and to prohibit the throwing of
human ordure out of windows after nightfall, as had been the custom,
nearly precipitated a revolution. — (See in Hawkesworth's "Voyages,"
London, 1773, vol. ii. p. 314.)
" These were more cleanly than most savages about excrements.
Every house had a concealed (if possible) privy near, and in large
' Pas ' a pole was run out over the cliff" to sit on sailor-fashion." —
LATRINES. 135
("The Maoris of New Zealand," E. Tregear, in "Journal of tLe An-
thropological Institute," London, November, 1889.)
Marquesas Islands. " They are peculiarly cleanly in regard to the
egestse. At the Society Islands the wanderer's eyes and nose are
offended every morning in the midst of a path with the natural effects
of a sound digestion; but the natives of the Marquesas are accustomed,
after the manner of our cats, to bury the offensive objects in the earth.
At Taheite, indeed, they depend on the friendly assistance of rats, who
greedily devour these odoriferous dainties ; nay, they seem to be con-
vinced that their custom is the most proper in the world ; for their
witty countryman, Tupaya, found fault with our want of delicacy when
he saw a small building appropriated to the rites of Cloacina, in every
house at Batavia." — (Forster, "Voyage round the World," London,
1777, vol. ii. p. 28.)
Forster speaks of the traffic between the English sailors and the
women of Tahiti, in which the latter parted with their persoual favors
in return for red feathers and fresh pork ; in consequence of a too free
indulgence in this heavy food, the ladies suffered from indigestion.
" The goodness of their appetites and digestion, exposed them, how-
ever, to inconveniences of restlessness, and often disturbed those who
wished to sleep after the fatigues of the day. On certain urgent occa-
sions they always required the attendance of their lovers ; but, as they
wore frequently refused, the decks were made to resemble the paths in
the islands." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 83.)
Iu ancient Rome there were public latrines, but no privies at-
tached to houses. There were basins and tubs, which were emptied
daily by servants detailed for the purpose. No closet-paper was in
use, as may be imagined, none having yet been invented or introduced
in Europe, but in each public latrine, there was a bucket filled with
salt water, and a stick having a sponge tied to one end, with which
the passer-by cleansed his person, and then replaced the stick in the
tub.1 Seneca, in his Epistle No. 70, describes the suicide of a German
slave who rammed one of these sticks down his throat.
1 There is a reference in Martial to this use of the sponge and stick (see Epigram
XLVIIL, in English translation, edition of London, 1S71 ). Martial also speaks of
a Roman lady whose close-stool was of gold, but her drinking-cup of glass, —
" Ventris onus puro, nee te pudet excipis auro ;
Sed hibis in vitreo, chareus, ergo cacas. " —
(Epigram XXXVL, quoted by Harington, " Ajax," p. 37.)
High officials of Corea urinate in public into brass bowls, which are carried by
136 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
The warning " Commit no nuisance," or in French " II est defendu de
faire ici des ordures," is traceable back to the time of the Eonians,
who devoted to the wrath of the twelve great gods, "and of Jupiter
and Diana as well, all who did any indecency in the neighborhood of
the temples or monuments." " On nous saura gre de rapporter ici une
inscription qui se lisait autrefois sur les thermes de Titus; ' Duodecim
Dios et Dianam et Jovem Optimum Maximum habeat iratos quisquis hie
minxerit aut cacarit. ' ' In Genoa, excommunication was threatened
against all who infringed upon this same prohibition.
Privies were ordered for each house in Paris in 1513, whence we
may infer that some house-builders had previously of their own im-
pulse added such conveniences; as early as 1372, and again in 1395,
there were royal ordinances forbidding the throwing of ordures out of
the windows in Paris, which gives us the right to conclude that the
custom must have been general and offensive ; the same dispositions
were taken for the city of Bordeaux in 1585.
Obscene poetry was known in latrines in Rome as in our own day,
and some of the compositions have come down to us. — (See " Biblio-
theca Scatalogica," pp. 13-17.)
The Romans protected their walls " against such as commit nui-
sances ... by consecrating the walls so exposed with the picture of a
deity or some other hallowed emblem, and by denouncing the wrath of
heaven against those who should be impious enough to pollute what it
was their duty to reverence. The figure of a snake, it appears, was
sometimes employed for this purpose. . . . The snake, it is well
known, was reckoned among the gods of the heathens." — ("Vestiges
of Ancient Manners and Customs," Rev. John James Blunt, London,
1823, p. 43.)
Herodotus informs his readers that the Egyptians "ease themselves
in their houses, but eat out of doors, alleging that whatever is indecent,
though necessary, ought to be done in private, but what is not inde-
cent openly." — (" Euterpe," p. 35.)
Herodotus also speaks of the Egyptian king Amasis having made an
idol out of a gold foot-pan, "in which the Egyptians formerly vomited,
attendants in a sort of net or fillet and presented when required. — (Mr. W. "W.
Kockhffl.
The monasteries and nunneries of Thibet were provided with latrines. Among
the sins against which the nuus (Bhikshuni) were warned were, " Si une bhik-
shuni va seule anx lieux, et est," etc. — (" Pratikamoksha Sutra," Thibetan version,
translated by W. W. Eockhill, Paris, 1S84, p. 44, "Eeole des langues Orientales
vivantes.")
LATRINES. 137
made water, and washed their feet" ("Euterpe"). Minutius Felix,
in his " Octavius," refers to this, and takes umbrage that heathen idols
made of such foul materials should be adored (see his chapter xxv.).
Tournefort mentions latrines in Marseilles. " They make advantage
of the very excrements of the Gally-Slaves by placing at one end of the
Gallies proper vessels for receiving a manure so necessary to the coun-
try."— ("A Voyage to the Levant," edition of London, 1718, vol. i.
pp. 13-14.)
There must have been latrines in Scotland, because James I. of that
kingdom was killed in one in the Monastery of the Black Friars, in Perth,
in a. d. 1437 ; yet for many years later pedestrians in the streets of
Edinburgh, after night-fall, took their own risks of the filthy deluge
which house-maids were wont to pour down from the windows of the
lofty houses.
"As in modern Edinburgh so in ancient Eome, night was the time
observed by the careful housekeeper for throwing her slops from the
upper windows into the open drain that ran through the street beneath."
— (Footnote to page 14G of Edward Walford's (M.A. of Baliol, Ox-
ford) ed. of Juvenal, in "Ancient Classics for English Headers," Phila-
delphia, 1872, quoting from Juvenal the line, "Clattering the storm
descends from heights unknown," Satire III., line 274.)
" 'T is want of sense to sup abroad too late
Unless thou first hast settled thy estate ;
As many fates attend thy steps to meet
As there are waking windows in the street :
Bless the good gods and think thy chance is rare
To have a piss-pot only for thy share."
(Dryden's translation of the Third Satire of Juvenal.)
" And behold, there is nurra goaks in the whole kingdom (Scotland),
nor anything for pore servants, but a barrel with a pair of tongs thrown
across, and all the chairs of the family are emptied into this here bar-
rel once a day ; and at ten o'clock at night the whole cargo is flung out
of a back winders that looks into some street or lane, and the maid
calls, ' Gardy loo!' to the passengers, which signifies, 'Lord have
mercy upon you ! ' and this is done every night in every house in
Hadinborough." — ("Humphrey Clinker," Tobias Smollett, edition of
London, 1872, p. 542.)
The above seems to have been a French expression, — " Gare de
l'eau."
" The cry of all the South was that the public offices, the army, the
133 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
navy, were tilled with high-cheeked Drummouds and Erskines and
McGillvrays. . . . All the old jokes on hills without trees, girls with-
out stockings, meu eating the food of horses, pails emptied from the
fourteenth story, were pointed against these lucky adventurers." —
(T. B. Macaulay, "The Earl of Chatham," American edition, Appletou
and Co., New York, 1874, p. 720.)
The addition of privies to the homes of the gentry would appear to
have been an innovation, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, else there
would not have been so much comment made upon the action of Sir
John Hariugton, her distant cousin, who erected one as a fitting con-
venience to his new house, near Bath, and published a very Rabelaisian
volume upon the subject in London in 1596. The title of the book,
being quite long, — "A Discourse on a Stale Subject, called the Meta-
morphosis of Ajax," — will in subsequent citations be given simply as
Hariugton's " Ajax." From the description of the latrine in question
there is no doubt that Hariugton anticipated nearly all the mecha-
nism of modern days.
Richard III. is represented as having been seated in a latrine, "sit-
ting on a draught," when he was "devising with Terril how to have
his nephews privily murdered." — (Harington, "Ajax," p. 16.)
There is little reason to doubt that all houses in England, and all
Continental Europe as well, were provided with receptacles for urine
in the bed-chambers, even if no regular latrines existed outside of the
monasteries and other community-houses. Dr. Robert Fletcher, U. S.
Army, who has contributed the following, is of the opinion that these
conveniences were provided for ladies only, and submits the following
passages in support of his conclusions : —
" Hamjo, in the ' Wanderer,' part 2, by Sir Thomas Killigrew, de-
scribing to Senilis the probable manners of a rude husband, says that,
on retiring to bed, 'the gyant stretches himself, yawns, and sighs
a belch or two, stales in your pot, farts as loud as a musket for a
jest,' " etc.
In Douce's " Illustrations of Shakspeare " is a curious print of a
bishop blessing a newly married pair in the bridal bed ; on the lady's
side a chamber-pot is ostentatiously displayed.
Douce quotes the following from a rare " Morality," entitled, " Le
Condemnation des Banquets:" " Pause pour pisser le fol. II prengt
un coffinet en lieu de orinal et pisse dedans et tout coule par bas."
Hobbs, the Tanner of Tamworth, introduced by Hey wood in his play
of " King Edward the Fourth," the hero of the old ballad, furnished
LATRINES. 139
his rooms with urinals suited to his trade. He says to his guests, the
King and Sellinger : " Come, take away, and let 's to bed. Ye shall
have clean sheets, Xed ; but they be coarse, good strong hemp, of my
daughter's own spinning. And I tell thee your chamber-pot must be
a fair horn, a badge of our occupation ; for we buy no bending pewter
nor breaking earth." — (" 1 King Edward the Fourth," iii. 2, Hey-
wood, 1600.)
Additional references of the same tenor are to be found in the " Pil-
grims," Beaumont and Fletcher, ii. 1 : " The Scourge of Villauie,"
Marston, 1599, satire 2 ; and in the following, which does not accord
with Dr. Fletcher's opinion that such utensils were provided solely for
the female members of the household.
" Host. Hostlers, you knaves and commanders, take the horses of
the knights and competitors; your honorable hulks have put into har-
bor ; they '11 take in fresh water here, and I have provided clean
chamber-pots." — ("The Merry Devil of Edmonton," 1608.)
Such vessels were in use in Ireland, where they were called " omar-
fuail," from omar, a vessel, and fuait, urine. They must have been
employed from the earliest centuries. "And they (the Sybarites)
were the first people who introduced the custom of bringing chamber-
pots into eutertainments " (Athenaus, book xii. cap. 17).
It is not easy to detect any essential difference between the manners
of the people of Iceland, as described by Bleekmans on another page,
and those of the more polished Romans.
Bed-pans were used in France in the earliest days of the fifteenth
century. They are noted in " The Farce of Master Pathelin " (a. d.
1480). — (See " Le Moycn Age Medical," Dupouy, Paris, 1888, p. 280
el seq., and the translation of the same by Minor, Cincinnati, Ohio,
1890, p. 82.)
" Maids need no more their silver pisse-pots scour,
Presumptuous pisse-pot, how did'st thou offend ?
Compelling females on their hams to bend ?
To kings and queens we humbly bend the knee,
But queens themselves are forced to stoop to thee."
("On Melting down the Plate, or the Piss-Pot's Farewell,"
State Poems, vol. i. part 2, p. 215, A. D. 1697.)
"What need hath Nature of silver dishes or gold chamber-pots ? "
(" The Staple of News," Ben Jonson, iii 2 ; London, 1623.)
140 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Iu the ' Chronicle of London,' written in the fifteenth century, a
curious anecdote is related, to the effect that in a. d. 1258-60, a Jew,
on Saturday, fell into a ' privy ' at Tewksbury, but out of reverence
for his Sabbath, would not allow himself to be drawn out. The next
day being Sunday, the Earl of Gloucester would not let any one draw
him out ; " and so, says the Chronicle, " the Jew died in the privy."
— ("A Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483," London, 1827, p. 20,
quoted by Buckle in "Commonplace Book," p. 507, in vol. ii. of his
Works, London, 1872.)
" Heliogabalus' body was thrown into a Jakes, as writeth Suetonius."
— (Haringtou's " Ajax," p. 46.)
Heliogabalus was killed in one (latrine) ; Arius, the great heresi-
arch, and Pope Leo, his antagonist, had the same fate. Charles the
Fifth, Emperor of Germany and Spain, was born in one in the palace
of Gheut, of Jeanne of Aragon, iu 1500 j hence, the}- must have been
introduced in the localities named. — (See Biblioth. Scatal. p. 17.)
" Urinary reservoirs were erected in the streets of Rome, either for
the purpose of public cleanliness, or for the use of the fullers, who
were accustomed to purchase their contents of the Romau government
during the reign of Vespasian, and perhaps other emperors, at a certain
annual impost, and which, prior to the invention or general use of
soap, was the substance employed principally in their mills for cleans-
ing cloths and stuffs previous to their being dyed." — (John Mason
Good, translation of Lucretius' "De Xatura Rerum," London, 1805,
vol. ii. p. 154, footnote.)
"Vases, called Gastra, for the relief of passengers, were placed by
the Romans upon the edges of roads and streets." — (Fosbroke,
"Encyc. of Ant.," London, vol. i. p. 526, article "Urine")
" Les Chinois semblent manquer d'engrais, car on trouve de tons
cotes des lieux d'aisance pour les besoins des voyageurs." — ("Voyage
a Pekin," De Guignes, Paris, 1808, vol. i. p. 284; and agaiu, vol. iii.
p. 322.)
" Large vases of stone-ware are sunk in the ground at convenient
places for the use of passing travellers." — (" Chinese Repository,"
Canton, 1835, vol. iii. p. 134.)
" A traveller who lately returned from Pekin asserts that there is
plenty to smell in that city, but very little to see. . . . The houses
are all very low and mean, the streets are wholly unpaved, and are
always very muddy and very dusty, and as there are no sewers or cess-
LATRINES. 141
pools, the filthiness of the town is indescribable." — ("Chicago News,"
copied in the " Press," Philadelphia, Peun., May 14, 1889.)
"By the Mahometan law, the body becomes unclean after each
evacuation . . . both greater and smaller . . . requires an ablution,
according to circumstances. ... If a drop of urine touches the
clothes, they must be washed." For fear that their garments have
been so denied, " the Bokhariots frequently repeat their prayers stark
naked." . . . The matter of cleaning the body after an evacuation of
any kind is denned by religious ritual. " The law commands ' Is-
tindjah ' (removal), ' istinkah ' (ablution), and 'istibra' (drying,)" —
i. e., a small clod of earth is first used for the local cleansing, then
water at least twice, and finally a piece of linen a yard in length. . . .
In Turke}', Arabia, and Persia all are necessary, and pious men carry
several clods of earth for the purpose in their turbans. " These
acts of purification are also carried on quite publicly in the bazaars,
from a desire to make a parade of their consistent piety." Vambery
saw " a teacher give to his pupils, boys and girls, instruction in the
handling of the clod of earth, and so forth, by way of experiment." —
("Sketches of Central Asia," Arminius Vambery, London, 1868,
pp. 190, 191.)
Moslems urinate sitting down on their heels ; " for a spray of urine
would make hair and clothes ceremonially impure. . . . After urining,
the Moslem wipes the os penis with one to three bits of stone, clay, or
a handful of earth, and he must perform Wuzu before he can pray."
Tournefort (" Voyage au Levant," vol. iii. p. 355) tells a pleasant story
about certain Christians at Constantinople who powdered with poivre
d'Inde the stones in a wall where the Moslems were in the habit of
rubbing the os penis by way of wiping." — (Burton, " Arabian Nights,"
vol. ii. p. 326. Again, in footnote to p. 229, vol. iii., he says, " Scru-
pulous Moslems scratch the ground in front of their feet with a stick,
to prevent spraying and consequent defilement.")
Marco Polo, in speaking of the Brahmins, says, " They ease them-
selves in the sands, and then disperse it, hither and thither, lest it
should breed worms, which might die for want of food." — ("Travels,"
in Pinkerton, vol. vii. pp. 164, 165.)
Speaking of the Mahometans, Tournefort says, " When they make
water, they squat down like women, for fear some drops of uriue
should fall into their breeches. To prevent this evil, they squeeze the
part very carefully, and rub the head of it against the wall ; and one
may see the stones worn in several places by this custom. To make
142 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
themselves sport, the Christians smear the stones sometimes -with
Indian pepper and the root called ' Calf s-Foot,' or some other hot
plauts, which frequently causes an inflammation in such as happen to
use the Stone. As the pain is very smart, the poor Turks commonly
run for a cure to those very Christian surgeons who were the authors
of all the mischief. They never fail to tell them it is a very dan-
gerous case, and that they should be obliged, perhaps, to make an
amputation. The Turks, on the contrary, protest and swear that they
have had no communication with any sort of woman that could be
suspected. In short, they wrap up the suffering part in a Linen
dipped in Oxicrat tinctured with a little Bole-Armenic ; and this thev
sell them as a great specifick for this kind of Mischief." — (Tourne-
fort, "A Voyage to the Levant," London, 1718, vol. ii. p. 49.)
" Some of their doctors believe Circumcision was not taken from the
Jews, but only for the better observing the Precept of Cleanness, by
which they are forbidden to let any Urine fall upon their flesh. And
it is certain that some drops are always apt to hang upon the Pra?pu-
tium, especially among the Arabians, with whom that skin is naturally
much longer than in other men." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 46.)
The Mahometans have " Two ablutions, the great and small. . . .
The first is of the whole body, but this is enjoined only to " those
" who have let some urine drop upon their flesh when they have made
water." This he enumerates among " The Three great Defilements
of the Mussulmans." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 48.)
John Leo says of those " Arabians which inhabit in Earborie, or
upon the Coast of the Mediterranean Sea. . . . Their churches they
frequent very diligently, to the end they may repeat certain prescript
and formall Praiers, most sperstitiously perswading themselves that
the same day wherein they make their praiers, it is not lawfull for
them to wash certaine of their members, when, as at other times, they
will wash their whole bodies." — (" Observations of Africa," in Pur-
chas's " Pilgrims," vol. ii. p. 766.)
" Les lieux destines a la decharge de la nature . . . sont toujours
propres. . . . Les Turcs ne sont point assis comme nous quand ils
sont en ces lieux-la, mais ils s'accroupisseut sur le trou qui n'est re-
leve de terre que d'un demy-pied ou d'un peu plus. . . . Les Turcs
et tous les Mahometans en general ne se servent point de papier a de
vils usages, et quand ils vont a ces sortes de lieux ils portent un pot
plein d'eau pour se laver."- — ■ (J. B. Tavernier, " Relation de l'interieur
du Serail du Grand Seigneur," Paris, 1675, p. 194.)
LATRINES. 143
" Nunquatn Turcas seu papyro pro anistergio uti, sed pro magno
ipsis delicti habere, et qnidem ideo, quia fortasse Nonien Dei ipsi in-
scriptum sit vel inscribi possit, refert Thevenot, Itinerar. Orient, lib. 1,
cap. 33, p. m. 60. Et juxta A. Bubeqv., Ep. 3, p. m. 184, Turcte
alvum excrementis non exonerant quiu aquam secum portaut, qua
partes obscenas lavent." — (Schurig, " Chylologia," Dresden, 1725,
p. 796.)
Rabehis has written a characteristic chapter on the expedients to
which men resorted before the general introduction of paper for use in
latrines ; see his chapter xiii., " Anisterges."
" Nothiug could be more filthy than the state of the palace and all
the lanes leading up to it. It was well, perhaps, that we were never
expected to go there ; for without stilts aud respirators it would have
been impracticable, such is the filthy nature of the people. The king's
cows even are kept in his palace enclosure, the calves actually entering
the hut, where, like a farmer, Kamresi walks among them, up to his
ankles in filth, and inspecting them, issues his orders concerning
them."- — (Speke, "Nile," London, 18G3, vol. ii. p. 526, describing the
palace of King Kamresi, at the head of the Nile.)
" Shortly afterwards, a disturbance arose between some of my peo-
ple and the natives, owing to one of my men who retired into a patch
of cultivated ground having been discovered there by the owner. He
demanded compensation for his land having been defiled, and had to
be appeased by a present of cloth. If they were only half as particu-
lar about their dwellings as their fields, it would be a good thing, for
their villages are filthy in the extreme, and would be even worse but
for the presence of large numbers of pigs which act as scavengers." —
("Across Africa," Camerou, London, 1S77, vol. ii. p. 200.)
" I was disgusted with the custom which prevailed in the houses
like that in which I was lodged, of using the terrace as a sort of closet ;
and I had great difficulty in preventing my guide, Amer el Walati,
who still stayed with me and made the terrace his usual residence, from
indulging in the filthy practice." — (Dr. Henry Barth, "Travels in
North and Central Africa," Philadelphia, 1859, p. 429, description of
Timbuctoo.)
" They (the Tartars) hold it not good to abide long in one place,
for they will say when they will curse any of their children, ' I would
thou mightest tarry so long in one place that thou mightest smell
thine own dung as the Christians do;' and this is the greatest curse
they have." — (" Notes of Richard Johnson, servant to Master Richard
144 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Chancellor," in Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 62. "Voyages of Sir Hugh Wil-
loughby and others to the Northern parts of Siberia and Russia.")
The Tungouses of Siberia told Sauer that " they knew no greater
curse than to live iu one place like a Russian or Yakut, where filth
accumulates and fills the inhabitants with stench and disease." — (Sauer,
'• Expedition to the North parts of Russia," London, 1S02, p, 49.)
" It is a common obloquy that the Turks (who still keep the order
of Deuteronomy for their ordure) do object to Christians that they are
poisoned with their own dung." — (Haringtou, " Ajax," p. 115.)
" The aspect of the village itself is very neat, the ground being often
swept before the chief houses ; but very bad odors abound, owiug to
there being under each house a stinking mud-hole, formed by all waste
liquids and refuse matter poured down through the floor above. Iu
most other things, Malays are tolerably clean — in some scrupulously
so — and this peculiar and nasty custom, which is almost universal,
arises, I have little doubt, from their having been originally a water-
loving and maritime people, who built their houses on posts in the
water, and only migrated gradually inland, first up the rivers and
streams, and then into the dry interior.
"Habits which were once so convenient and cleanly, and which had
been so long practised as to become a part of the domestic life of the
nation, were of course continued when the first settlers built their
bouses inland ; and, without a regular system of drainage, the arrange-
ment of the villages is such that any other system would be very
inconvenient." — ("The Malay Archipelago," Alfred Russell Wallace,
Loudon, 18G9, vol. i. p. 126.)
Forster speaks of " an intolerable stench which arises from the many
tanks dispersed in the different quarters of the town, whose waters and
borders are appropriated to the common use of the inhabitants "
("Sketch of the Mythology of the Hindoos," George Forster, London,
1785, p. 7) ; but, he adds, "The filth alone which is indiscriminately
thrown into the street."
"There are some Guai, which . . . dawbe oner their houses with Oxe-
dung. . . . They touch not their meat with the left hand, but use that
hand only to wipe and other unclean offices." — (Marco Polo, in Pur-
chas, vol. i. p. 105.)
" Having list at any time to ease themselves, the filthy lousels had
not the manners to withdraw themselves further from us than a Beane
can be cast. Yea, like vile slouens, they would lay their tails in our
presence, while they were yet talking with us." — (Friar William de
LATRINES. 145
Rubruquis, the Franciscan, sent by Saint Louis, of France (King Louis
IX.), as ambassador to the Grand Khan of Tartary in a.d. 1235, —
in Purchas, vol. i. p. 11.)
" A great magnifico of Venice, being ambassador in France, and
hearing a noble person was come to speak with him, made him stay till
he had untied his points ; and when lie was new set upon his stool,
sent for the nobleman to come to him at that time, as a very special
favor." — (Hariugton, "Ajax," p. 30.)
" The French courtesy I spake of before came from the Romans ;
since in Martial's time, they shunned not one another's company at
Monsieur Ajax." (" Ajax " as used by Harington, is a play upon the
words " a Jakes.") — (See Harington, " Ajax," p. 3S.)
Carl Lumholtz stated to the author that the Australians urinate in
the presence of strangers, and while talking to them.
"II n'est fouction physiologique ou besoin naturel qu'ils aient gene a
satisfaire en public. ' Une coutume u'a rien d'indeceut qiiand elle est
universelle,' remarque philosophiquement un de nos voyageurs. — (" Les
Primitifs," Elie Reclus, Paris, 1885, p. 71, — " Les Inoits Occidentaux,"
quoting Dall.)
Padre Gumilla says that the Indians on the Orinoco have the same
custom as the Jews and Turks have of digging holes with a hoe and
covering up their evacuations. (See "Orinoco," Madrid, 17-41, p. 109.)
No such cleanliness can be attributed to the Indians of the Plains of
North America or the nomadic tribes of the Southwest.
" And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon ; and it shall be,
when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt
turn back and cover that which cometh from thee.
"For the Lord, thy God, walketh in the midst of thy camp, to de-
liver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee ; therefore shall
thy camp be holy ; that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn
away from thee." — (Deuteronomy xxiii.)
Speaking of the Essenes, Josephus informs us : " On the seventh
day . . . they will not even remove any vessel out of its place, nor per-
form the most pressing necessities of nature. Nay, on other days they
dig a small pit, a foot deep, with a paddle (which kind of hatchet is
given them when they first are admitted among them), and, covering
themselves round with their garment, that they may not affront the
divine rays of light, they ease themselves into that pit. After which
they put the earth that was dug out again into that pit.
" And even this they do only in the most lonesome places, which they
10
146 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
choose for this purpose. And it is a rule with them to wash them-
selves afterwards, as if it were a defilement." — (" Wars of the Jews,"
edition of New York, 1821, p. 241.)
" The Rabbinical Jews believed that every privy was the abode of an
unclean spirit of this kind" (i. e., an excrement-eating god), "which
could be inhaled with the breath, and descending into the lower parts
of the body, lodge there, and thus like the Bhutas of India, bring
suffering and disease." (Personal letter from John Frazer, Esq., LL.D.,
Sydney, New South Wales, Dec. 24, 1889.)
In descriptions of Jerusalem, we read of the "Dung Gate," by or
through which, all the fecal matter of the city had to be carried. —
(See Harington, " Ajax," p. 87.)
" When an aborigine obeys a call of nature, he always carries a
pointed instrument with which to turn up the ground, so that his
fecal excreta may be hidden from the keen vision of the vagabond
Bangals." ("Bangals" are the native witches or their parallels) —
("Aborigines of Victoria and Biverina," A. Brough-Smith, vol. i.
p. 105.)
The same custom has been ascribed to the Dyaks of Borneo. It is
by no means certain that this custom had its origin in any suggestion
of cleanliness ; on the contrary, it is fully as probable that the idea
was to avert the maleficence of witchcraft by putting out of sight
material the possession of which would give witches so much power
over the former owner.
Mr. John F. Mann confirms from personal observation that the natives
of Australia observed the injunction given to the Hebrews iu Deuter-
onomy. " From personal observation, I can state that the natives, all
over the country, as a rule, are particular in this matter, but it was
many years before I ascertained the reasons for this care. Sorcery
and witchcraft exist in every tribe; each tribe has its 'Kooradgee' or
medicine-man ; the natives imagine that any death, accident, or pain, is
caused by the evil influence of some enemy. These ' Kooradgees ' have
the power not only of inflicting pain, but of causing all kinds of trouble.
They are particular to always carry about with them, in a net bag, a
' charm ' which is most ordinarily made of rock crystal, human excre-
ment, and kidney fat. If one of these medicine-men can obtain pos-
session of some of the excrement of his intended victim, or some of his
hair, in fact anything belonging to his person, it is the most easy thing
in the world to bewitch him." — (Personal letter from John F. Mann,
Esq., Neutral Bay, New South Wales.)
LATRINES. 147
" The disposal of excreta is not so much for the sake of cleanliness
as to prevent any human substance from falling into the hands of an
enemy." — (Idem.)
Schurig devotes a long paragraph to an exposition of the views
entertained by learned physicians in regard to the effects to be ex-
pected from the deposition of the fecal matter upon plants that were
either noxious or beneficial to the human organism ; in the former case,
the worst results were to be dreaded from sympathy ; in the latter,
only the most salutary. Rustics, in his opinion, enjoyed better health
than the inhabitants of cities for the very peculiar reason that the
latter evacuated in latrines and in the act were compelled to inhale the
deleterious gases emanating from the foul deposits already accumulated :
whereas the countryman could go out to a comfortable place in the
fields and evacuate without the danger and inconvenience to which the
urban population were subject.
But he takes occasion to warn his readers that they must be care-
ful not to defecate upon certain malignant herbs which might be the
cause of virulent dysentery. "Prseterea caveudum est ne feces supra
herbas malignas exulcerantes sive violenter purgantes deponamus hinc
enim causa latente dysenteria periculosa inducitur quse vix nisi herbis
prorsus putrefactis ullis medicamentis cedit." — (" Chylologia," p. 792,
paragraph 66.)
Colonel Garrick Mallery, United States Army, reports having met
with people of respectability and intelligence in the mountainous parts
of Virginia who hold the same views upon the subject of latrines.
" Ye great ones, why will ye disdain
To pay your tribute on the plain ?
Why will you place in lazy pride ?
When from the homeliest earthenware
Are sent up offerings more sincere
Than where the haughty Duchess locks
Her silver vase in cedar box."
(Dean Swift.)
" Si une bhikshuni jette des excrements sur l'herbe croissante, c'est
un pacittiya, etc." — (" Pratimoksha Sutra," translated by W. W.
Rockhill, Paris, 1884. Soc. Asiatique.) These bhikshuni are the
nuns of Thibet, and the word " pacittiya " means a sin.
The following beastly practices are related of the Capuchins : " Tu-
nica replicata, absque impedimento cacat et mingit, anum fune abster-
148 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
git." — (Fosbroke, "British Monachism," quoting "Specimen Mon-
chologice.")
There are no latrines of any kind in Angola, West Africa ; the ne-
groes believe that it is very vile to frequent the same place for such
purposes. They do not cover up their excrements, but deposit them
out in the bushes. Sometimes it happens that a man will defecate
inside the house, in which case he will be laughed at all the rest of his
life, and be called " D'Kombe," which is a kind of leopard. — (" Mu-
hongo," an African boy, translation by Eev. Mr. Chatelain.)
The following is the epigram of Martial "ad Furium" : —
"A te sudor abest, abest saliva,
Mucusque et pituita mala nasi,
Hunc ad niunditiem adde mundiorem,
Quod cuius tibi purior salillo est,
Nee toto decies cacas in anno ;
Atque id durius est faba et lapillis,
Quod tu si raanibus teras fricesque,
Nou unquam digitum inquinare possis."
The Hon. John F. Finerty called public attention to the fact that
in the city of Mexico, ten years ago, beggars of the vilest caste in-
variably made a practice of defecating upon the marble steps of the
main entrance to the grand cathedral.
Dr. J. H. Porter states that in some parts of the Mexican republic
the women come out in front of their doors to urinate ; the author lias
seen them doing this, and also defecating in the streets of Tucson, at
that time the capital of Arizona ; he has seen the same practice in
several of the smaller hamlets of that territory and Sonora and New
Mexico, but always at night.
The Mexicans living on our side of the border never constructed
privies for their dwellings, a custom perhaps derived from Spain, where
we have seen that even in Madrid the construction of such conveniences
was unknown until after the middle of the last century.
POSTURE IN URINATION.
The Apache men in micturating always squat down, while the women,
on the contrary, always stand up. Giraldus Cambrensis says of the Irish :
" Preeterea, viri in hac gente sedendo, mulieres stando, urinas emittunt."
— (" Opera," edited by James Dimock, and published under the direc-
tion of the Master of the Eolls, London, 1867, vol. v. p. 172.)
The author has seen an Italian woman of the lower class urinating
LATRINES. 149
in this manner in the street near San Pietro in Vinculis, Kome, in open
daylight, in 1883.
French women were to be seen in the streets of Paris urinating while
standing over gutters. — (Mr. W. W. Rockhill.)
" Among the Turks, it is an heresy, to p — s standing," — (Harington,
"Ajax," in the chapter "Ulysses upon Ajax," p. 43.)
The Egyptian " women stand up when they make water, but the men
sit down." — (Herodotus, " Euterpe," p. 35.)
Mr. Carl Lumholtz (author of " Among Cannibals," New York, 1889)
also stated that the Australian men squatted while urinating ; the
women generally stood erect, but upon this point he was not quite
sure.
" Mantegazza, in his ' Gli amori degli uomini,' describing the opera-
tion of splitting the male urethra, practised among Australian tribes,
remarks: 'To urinate, they squat down like our women, lifting the
penis slightly. It appears that, on the contrary, Australian women
urinate standing.' (He is apparently quoting from Michluchs-Maclav.)
Among the Kaffirs, etc., at the Cape, the usual practice, I understand,
does not differ from ours." — (Personal letter from Havelock Ellis, Esq.,
editor of the Contemporary Science series, dated Red Hill, Surrey, Oct. 8,
1889. From this gentleman there was also received much matter of a
most valuable character, from the early English dramatists, travellers,
and others, which has beeu already quoted from these sources direct.)
" Behold the strutting Amazonian whore !
She stands in guard, with her right foot before :
Her coat tucked up, and all her motions just,
She stamps, and then cries, ' Hah ! ' at every thrust.
But laugh to see her, tired from many a bout,
Call for the pot, and like a man piss out."
(Juvenal, Satire VI., Dryden's translation.)
The Thibetan nuns are forbidden to adopt certain postures, as are
the monks.
" 110, 111. Xe pas se soulager debout, n'etant pas malade, est une
regie qu'on doit apprendre." — (" Pratimoksha Sutra," translated by
W. W. Rockhill, Paris, 1884, Soc. Asiatique.)
" ^Esop, that great man, saw his master make water as he walked.
' What ! ' said he ; ' must we, then, dung as we walk V — (Planudus,
quoted by Montaigne, " Essays," Hazlitt's translation, New York, 1859,
vol. iii. p. 467.)
The lazzaroni of Naples are more filthy in all these respects than the
150 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
wildest Maori, Bedouin, or Apache Indian, as the author can assert
from disagreeable personal observation.
"It can be justly said that the inhabitants of Cadiack, if we except
the women during their monthly periods and their lying-in, have not
the least sense of cleanliness. They will not go a step out of the way
for the most necessary purposes of nature ; and vessels are placed at
their very doors for the reception of the urinous fluid, which are re-
sorted to alike by both sexes." — (Lisiansky, " Voyages," p. 214, quoted
also in Bancroft's "Native Baces of the Pacific Slope," vol. i. p. 81.)
"Par suite des ordures et du manque d'air, l'interieur des huttes
repand une puanteur presque insupportable." — ("Les Primitifs," Elie
Rcclus, Paris, 1885, " Les Inoits Orientaux.")
Old women in Switzerland urinate standing, especially in cold
weather. — (Rev. Mr. Chatelain, himself a native of Switzerland, and
now a Protestant missionary in Angola, Western Africa.)
The men of Angola, Africa, urinate standing; the women of the
same tribes urinate standing, as a general thing, although there are
some exceptions. It should be remembered that the Jesuits have had
missions in that region for two hundred years, and some effect upon
the ideas of the people, due to these ministrations as well as to the
occupancy of the country by the Portuguese, should be perceptible.
Gomara says of the Indians of Nicaragua : " Mean todos do les toma
la gana — ellos en cuclillas y ellas en pie." — (" Historia de las Indias,"
p. 283.)
The Mojaves of the Rio Colorado follow the same rule as the
Apaches.
In Ounalashka, the houses are divided by partitions. " Each parti-
tion has a particular wooden reservoir for the urine, which is used
both for dyeing the grass and for washing the hands, but after cleans-
ing the latter in this manner, they rince them in pure water." —
(Sarytschew, in "Phillip's Voyages," London, 1807, vol. vi. p. 72.)
Dr. Porter communicates the information that he has often heard
the Arctic explorer Dr. Hayes speak of the propensity of the Eskimo
of the east coast of Greenland to use the trench to the hut as a latrine.
He tried in vain to prevent this practice among his Eskimo attendants,
but believed that they had a pride among themselves in leaving con-
spicuous traces of their presence.
Eor urinals among the Eskimo, see also notes from Egede, Egede
Saabye, and Richardson, under " Industries," in this volume.
" Neither is it lawfull for any one to rise from the table to make
LATRINES. 151
water ; but for this purpose the daughter of the house, or another maid
or woman, attendeth always at the table, watchfull if any one beckon
to them ; to him that beckoneth shee gives the chamber-pott under
the table with her owne hands ; the rest in the meanwhile grunt like
swine least any noise bee heard. The water being poured out, hee
washeth the bason, and otfereth his services to him that is willing ;
and he is accouuteth uncivill who abhorreth this fashion.". — (Dittmar
Bleecken's " Voyage to Iceland and Greenland," a. d. 1 5G5, in Purchas,
vol. i. pp. 636-6-47.)
Steller's account shows that in his time the people of Kamtchatka
had no regular water-closets.
" The dogs steal food whenever they can, and even eat their straps.
In their presence no one is able to ease nature without the protection
of a club for the purpose of keeping them at a distance. As soon as
he leaves, the dogs rush to the spot, and under much snarling and
snapping each seeks to grasp the deposit." — (Steller, translated by
Bunnemeyer.)
In the Eskimo myths there is the story of the Eskimo boy, an or-
phan, who was abused by being made to carry out of the hut the largo
urine vessel. This would indicate a certain antiquity for the employ-
ment of these vessels. — (See "The Central Eskimo," Eranz Boas, in
" Sixth Annual Eeport," Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C,
18S8, p. 631.)
In the city of Bogota, Colombia, South America, the lower classes
urinate openly in the streets ; in the city of Mexico, the same practice
prevailed until recently.
In "The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona,'' the author had
something to say touching the practice of the .Moquis, Zunis, and
others of the Pueblo tribes, of collecting urine in vessels of eartheuware ;
this was for the purpose of saving the fluid for use in dyeing the wool
of which their blankets and other garments were to be made. It was
noticed, however, that a particular place was assigned for such emer-
gencies as might arise when the ordinary receptacles might not be
within reach. Thus, in the town of Hualpi (ou the eastern mesa in
the northeast corner of the Territory of Arizona), one of the corners
had been in such constant use, and for so long a time that the stream
percolating down from the wall had eroded a channel for itself in the
friable sandstone flooring, which would serve to demonstrate that the
place had been so dedicated for a very extended number of years.
Latrines of some sort would seem to have been in use among the
152 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
natives of Australia, if we are to interpred literally the expression em-
ployed by A. Brough Smyth, which see under " Myths " in this volume.
The Tonga Islanders, in the mortuary ceremonies of their great chiefs,
are stated to have had them (see under "Mortuary Ceremonies" in
this volume).
Carl Lumholtz did not observe latrines of any kind among such of
the Australians as he visited.
Among the Chinese " it is usual for the princes, and even the people,
to make water standing. Persous of dignity, as well as the vice-kings,
and the principal officers, have gilded canes, a cubit long, which are
bored through, and these they use as often as they make water, stand-
ing upright all the time ; and by this means the tube carries the water
to a good distance from them.1 They are of opinion that all pains in
the kidneys, the strangury, and even the stone, are caused by making
water in a sitting posture ; and that the reins cannot free themselves
absolutely of these humors but by standing to evacuate ; and that thus
this posture contributes exceedingly to the preservation of health." —
("The Travels of Two Mahometans through India and China," in
Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 215.)
The Persian "must not pray before an overhanging wall, or in a
room where there is a pot de chambre." — (Benjamin, "Persia," Lon-
don, 18S7, p. 444, quoting from the Shahr.)
In the Hawaiian Islands, if a man's shadow fall on a chief, the man
is put to death. — (See " The Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 190.)
"These natives (East Siberia) always preserve for use in their do-
mesticity the urine of the whole family ; it is preserved in a large tub
or half-barrel, procured from the whale-ships or found in the drift that
comes upon their shores. They use the warm water from their bodies
for cleansing their bodies ; the rim that gathers round the high-water
mark of their cess-pool is used for smearing their bodies to kill the
vermin. . . . The habits of these people are beastly in the extreme.
. . . They seemed to have no aversion whatever to close contact with
the feces of men or animals." — (Personal letter of Chief Engineer
Melville, U. S. Navy, to Captain Bourke.)
Van Stralenberg says of the " Korseiki " (Koraks) : " For their nec-
essary occasions they make use of a tub, which they have with them
iu the hut, and when full they carry it out, and make use of the same
1 This recalls the repugnance of the Mahometans to the spray of urine touching
their persons or clothing, as already indicated.
LATRIXES. 153
tub to bring in water for other occasions." — ( "Histori-Geographical
Description of the North and East Parts of Europe and Asia," p. 397.)
By referring to page 390 of this volume, it will be seen that the
Lapps, upon breaking camp, made it a point to burn the dung of their
reindeer in cases where any of these animals had died of disease ; while
it is also related that immigrants to California from the States of Mis-
souri and Arkansas, for some reason not understood, had the singular
custom of burning their own excrement in the camp-fire.
"When they ease themselves, they commonly go in the morning unto
the Towne's end, where there is a place purposely made for them, that
they may not bee seeue, so also because men passing by should not be
molested with the smell thereof. They also esteeme it a bad thing that
men should ease themselves upon the ground, and therefore they make
houses which are borne up above the ground, wherein they ease them-
selves upon the ground, and every time they do it they wipe ; or else
they goe to the water's side to ease themselves in the. sand ; and when
the Priuie houses are full, they set fire to them, and let them burn to
ashes ; they pisse by jobs as dogs doe, and not all at one time." —
(Master Richard Jobson, a. d. 1620, "Gold Coast of Africa," iu Pur-
chas, vol. ii. p. 932.)
154 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXI.
AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE RITES CON-
NECTED WITH THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR.
"PRECISELY what ceremonial observances the ritual of Bel-Phegor
demanded of the suppliant at his shrine is not likely ever to be
known. It would be worse than useless to attempt in a treatise of this
kind to affirm or deny the existence of the obscene usages alleged to
have formed part of his worship ; sufficient, at this moment, to lay be-
fore reflecting minds testimony on both sides of the question, with
reasons for the belief that flatulence could be presented as an ob-
lation, with examples of quaint customs which may partake of the
nature of "survivals " from religious ceremonies of a nature not far
removed from those supposed to have been associated with the rites of
Bel-Phegor.
Well has an old author remarked : " Men have lost their reason in
nothing so much as their religion, wherein stones and clouts make
martyrs ; and since the religion of one seems madness to another, to
afford an account or rational of old rites requires no rigid reader." —
(Sir Thomas Browne, " Religio Medici," edition of Boston, 1868, p. 329,
article ''Urn-Burial.")
" Le Pet etait une diviuite des ancieus Egyptiens ; elle etait la per-
sonification d'une fonction naturelle. On la figurait par un enfant ac-
croupi qui semble faire effort, et on peut en voir la representation dans
les ouvrages d'autiquite. Le poeme Calotin, intitule le Conseil de
Momns (voyez aux Polygraphes) donne, contre la page 19, deux figures
de ce dieu. L'une etait en cornaline de trois couleurs ; l'autre en terre
cuite, se trouvait dans le cabinet du Marquis de Cospy, et la figure en
a £te donnce dans le Museum Cospianum. L'auteur de la Dissertation
sur nn ancien Usage (voyez le numero 18) conteste que ces figurines
se rapportant au Crepitus, et croit qu'elles ont ete inventees dans un
but plus solide.
THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR. 155
" C'est de Minutiua Felix que nous vient la reconnaissance du Crepitus,
qui, lors meme qu'il aurait ete celebre reellernent en Egj-pte, n'etait
peut-etre qu'uue caricature imagiuee par les plaisants du jour. Menage
cependant afiirrne que les Pelusiens adoraient le Pet; il dit que Baude-
lot en a donne la preuve daus les editions de son premier vol., et qu'il
en possedait une figure. O'oy. Menagiana, 1693, no. 397. St. Jerome
dit la meme chose sur Isaie, xiii. 46. Voy. encore Klotz, act. litter, t.
v., premiere partie, 1, Elmenhorst sur l'Octavius de Minutiua Felix;
Mythol. de Banier, t. 1 ; Moutfaucon, ' l'Autiquite expliquee,' t. iii.
part 2, p. 336.)
" Quelques antiquaires ont cru pouvoir identifier le dieu Crepitus des
Romains avec Bel-Phegor, Baal-Pliegor ou Baal-Peor, dieu Syrien, —
Phegor, assure-t-ou, ayant ce sens en Hebreu. (Origeu contra Celsus ;
.Minutius Felix.) Mais, sur cette deruiere divinite les savants sout fort
peu d'accord.
" Origene, St. Jerome, Salomon Ben Jarchi, lui donnent une significa-
tion qui la rendrait tout a. fait indigue de figurer dans uotre catalogue ;
mais Maimonide (Moge Nevoch, cap. 46) et Saloin. Ben Jarchi (Com-
ment. 3, sur Nomb. ch. 25) pretendent que son oulte etnit plus sale que
obscene, et les traducteurs de ces rabbins pour exprimer le principal de-
tail des ceremouies ccle'brees en l'honneur du dieu de Syrie, disent ;
' Distendere coram eo foramen podicis et stercus offerre.'
" Ajoutez que les pets etaient de bon augure chez les Grecs, de mau-
vais augure chez les Romains. — (Voy. Scaliger, Auson.)
" No one now supposes that the Rabbins had anything but their
imaginations to go on in what they say about Baal-Peor ; they iuveuted
the story as a fanciful etymology of the name."1 — (Personal letter
from Prof. W. Robertson Smith to Captain Bourke.)
1 Bel-Peor. "Very little is really known of the nature of his worship, but it
is an almost universal opinion, which appears to be sustained by Numbers xxv.,
that it was licentious in its character. Human sacrifice appears to have been
offered to him ; and it is conjectured, from Psalms cvi. 28, that the worshippers ate
of the victims that had been offered to him." — (" Dictionary of Religious Knowl-
edge," Abbott and Conant, New York, 1875, article "Baal and Baal-Peor.")
" In a story of Armagnac, Joan Ion Pec runs after a man whom he believes
to be a sage, and asks him when he will die. The man answers : ' Joan lou Pec
miuriras au troisieme pet de toun ase,' — The ass breaks wind twice, and the fool
endeavors to prevent the third flatus. 'Cop sec s*en angone cerca un pan (stake)
bien pounchut et l'enfouneee das un martet dans lou cou de l'ase. Mes l'ase s'en-
flee tant, e hasconc tant gran effort que lou pau sourtisconc commo no balo e tuec
lou praube Joan lou Pee.'" — ("Contes et Proverbes Populaires," recueillis en
156 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Citations have already been made from the Bibliotheea Scatologica,
a curious collectiou of learning, no name and no place of publication of
which can be found, but which seems to have been printed by Giraudet
et Jouaust, 315 Rue Saint Honore, Paris, granting that this title be not
fictitious. In that work are to be seen the titles of no less than one
hundred and thirty-three treatises upon Flatulence, some grotesque,
some coarse, one or two of quaint erudition.
No. 88, entitled " FJoge du Pet, dissertation historique, anatomique
et philosophique sur sou origine, sou antiquite, ses vertus, sa figure,
les honneurs qn'on lui a rendus chez les peuples auciens, etc. ; avec
une figure representant le dieu Pet, et cette inscription : Crepitui vcn-
tris conservatori deo propitio (p. 38)," the stupendous work of Sclop-
etarius, No. Ill, of the Bibliotheea (Frankfort, 1628) seems to have
been a monumental labor upon a subject not generally dissected.
The same remark maybe applied to " Physiologia crepitus veutris"
of Rod. Goclenius, Frankfort and Leipsic, 1607, No. 123 of the
Bibliotheea.
The earliest known work upon this curious topic is " Le plaisant
deuis du Pet," Paris, 1540.
" Origen saith the name Baal-Peor signifieth fjlthiness, but what
filthiness he knew not ; Salomon Ben Jarchi writeth they offered to
him ordure, placing before his mouth the likeness of that place which
Nature hath made for egestion." — (Purchas, vol. v. p. 85.)
A reference to the work of Bel-Phegor is to be found in the fol-
lowing couplet from a book entitled " Conseil de Momus : " —
"La deusieme moitie du premier chant est consacrce
'A certains vents coulis
Jadis adores a Memphis.' " — (Dib. Seat., p. 7.)
" The antient Pelusiens, a people of lower Egypt, did (amongst
other whimsical, chimerical objects of veneration and worship) venerate
a Fart, which they worshipped under the symbol of a swelled paunch."
— (" A View of the Levant," Charles Perry, M. D., sm. fob, London,
1743, p. 419.
Armagnac, par J. F. Blade, Paris, quoted by Angelo de Gubernatis, "Zoiil. Mythol.,"
vol. i. pp. 397, 398. )
The reader will please look under the heading of " Myths " in this volume, and
will there see a similar adventure related of the Eskimo, or rather the Kamtehatkan,
god Kutka.
" Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and mine inward parts
for Kir-haresh." — (Isaiah xvi. 11.)
THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR. 157
"Time has preserved to us a figure of this ridiculous Divinity,
which represents a very young child in the posture of that indecent
action whence this god has his name." — (Abbe Bauier, "Mythology,"
English translation, 1740, vol. ii. pp. 52 et seq.) 1
" Their Beetle-gods out of their privies ; yea, their Privies and
Farts had their unsavorie canonization and went for Egyptian deities.
... So, Hierome derideth their dreadfull deitie, the Onion, and a
stinking Fart, Crepitus ventris inflati que Pelusiaco religio est, which
they worshipped at Pelusium." — (Purchas, vol. v. p. G-41.)
It may be well to bear in mind that the heathen idea of the power
of a god was entirely different from our own. The deities of the hea-
then were restricted in their powers and functions ; they were assigned
to the care of certain countries, districts, valleys, rivers, fountains, etc.
Kot only that, they were capable of aiding only certain trades, pro-
fessions, etc. They were not able to cure all diseases, only particular
kinds, each god being a specialist; consequently, each was supposed
to take charge of a section of the human body. This was the case
with the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and others. In mediaeval times
the same rule obtained, only in place of gods, we find saints assigned
to these functions. Brand, Pop. Antiq. vol. i. p. 35G, et seq., gives a
list of the saints, aud the functions ascribed to each. On page 3GG of
the work just cited, it will be seen that Saint Erasmus was in charge
of " the belly, with the eutrayles." Keeping this in view, we can
better understand the peculiar ceremonies connected with the worship
of Bel-Phegor ; he was, no doubt, the deity to whom the devotee
resorted for the alleviation of ailments connected with the rectum and
belly, much as he would, at a later date in the history of religion,
have invoked Saint Phiacre to relieve him " of the phy or emeroids, of
those especially which grow in the fundament." (See in Brand, loc.
cit. p. 362.) On the same principle that the worshipper was wont to
hang up in the temples of Esculapius wax and earthen representations
of the sore arms, legs, and other members which gave him pain, the
1 " The Eskimo call the better being ' Torngarsuk.' They don't all agree about
his form or aspect. Some say he has no form at all ; others describe him as a
great bear, or as a great man with one arm, or as small as a finger. He is immortal,
but might be killed by the intervention of the god Crepitus. ' — (" Myth, Ritual,
and Religion," Andrew Lang, London, 1887, vol. ii. p. 48.) A footnote to the
above adds, "The circumstances in which this is possible may be sought for in
Crantz, 'History of Greenland,' London, 1767, vol. i. p. 206."
Crantz says of Torngarsub : "He is immortal, and yet might be killed, if any
one breaks wind in a house where witchcraft is carrying on.' — (Crantz, as above.)
158 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
worshipper of Bel-Phegor would offer him the sacrifice of the flatulence
and excrement, testimonies of the good health for which gratitude was
due to the older deity.
"The Egyptians divided the human body into thirty-six parts, each
of which they believed to be under the particular government of one
of the dccans or aerial demons who presided over the triple divisions
of the twelve signs ; and we have the authority of Origeu for saying
that when any part of the body was diseased, a cure was effected by
invoking the demon to whose province it belonged." — (" .Medical
Superstitions," Pettigrew, Philadelphia, 1844, p. 47.)
The ascription of particular signs of the Zodiac to the care of
different members of the human anatomy is in line with the same
religious idea ; because the signs of the Zodiac, especially the Animal
signs, were once Animal Gods.
Hone, in his " Every-Day Book," has a therapeutical hagiology, too
long to be here repeated.
"Melton says, 'The saints of the Bomanists have usurped the place
of the Zodiacal constellations in their governance of the parts of man's
body,' and that 'for every limb they have a saint.' Thus Saint
" Erasmus rules the belly with the entrayles in the place of Libra and
Scorpius." — ("Medical Superstitions," Pettigrew, Philadelphia, 1844,
p. d4.) ISText follows a long list of saints, with the particular functions
assigned to each, beginning first with the list to be found in Hone,
which Pettigrew extends. — (" Saint Giles and Saint Hyacinth against
Sterility," idem, pp. 55, 56.)
"In later times, according to Herodotus, a particular and minute
division of labor characterized the Egyptians ; the science of medicine
was distributed into different parts ; every physician was for one dis-
ease, not more ; so that every place was full of physicians, for some
were doctors for the eyes, others for the head ; some for the teeth,
others for the belly ; and some for occult disorders. There were also
physicians for female disorders. The sons followed the professions of
their fathers, so that their numbers must necessarily have been very
great." — (Idem, p. 44.)
As the Egyptian priests were the doctors of that country, it is per-
fectly in accord with the eternal fitness of things that we should find
them, even after they had been differentiated into different professions,
restricted to the treatment of special diseases, much as the gods whom
the priests once represented had been restricted.1
1 Among the Chinese and Hindus an identical partition of responsibility will be
found ascribed to the deities. It would require a special disquisition to enumerate
THE WORSHIP OF BEL-rHEGOR. 159
"The art of medicine is thns divided among them (Egyptians).
Each physiciau applies himself to one disease only and not more. All
these gods aud their functions, so far as known to us, but such an enumeration
would do no good, because the accuracy of the statement will be admitted without
dispute.
A clipping from the "Times," of India, copied in the "Sunday Herald," of
Washington, D. C, June 2, 1889, bears upon this point :
" The general public are not aware of a ludicrous custom still followed in Hindu
households of Bengal. The last day of Falgoon, that fell on the 12th ultimo, Mas
observed in worshipping Ghantoo, the god of itches and the diseases of the skin
which afflict the natives. Very early in the morning of the day the mistresses of
the families, changing their nocturnal attire, put a useless, black earthen vessel
outside the threshold of their back doors, with a handful of rice and masoor dal,
four cowries, with a piece of rag smeared with turmeric. Wild flowers appearing
in this season are ofTered in worship. (These flowers are called Ghantoo fool.) The
young boys of the family stand in a semicircle before the mistress, with cudgels in
their hands. When the conches are sounded by the female worshippers, as the sig-
nal of the poojah being over, the boys break the vessels into atoms. The mirthful
children, in their anxiety to strike the first blow, sometimes break the fingers and
hands of the matrons. The piece of rag is preserved over the doors of houses in
the zenana. In the evening of the day, the boys of the lower order of the villages
sing the songs of the occasion from door to door for pice.''
Although the adoration of Flatulence cannot be found among the Chinese,
religious customs equally revolting have been ascribed to them. "The Chinese
are addicted to the abominable vice of Sodomy, and the filthy practice of it they
number among the indifferent things they perform in honor of their idols." —
("The Travels of Two Mahomedans through India and China," in Pinkerton,
vol. vii. p. 195.) These Mahomedans travelled in the ninth century.
"The negroes of Guinea have a god of the small-pox." See " Fetichism," by
Father P. Baudin, New York, 1885, p. 74.
According to the Guinea negroes, " Every man has three genii, or protecting
spirits. The first is Eleda, who dwells in the head, which he guides. . . . This
second genius (Ojehun) has his habitation in the region of the stomach. . . .
Ipori, the third protecting genius, takes up his abode in the great toe."- — (Idem,
p. 43.)
"The Samoans supposed disease to be occasioned by the wrath of some partic-
ular deity. . . . The friends of the sick went to the high priest of the village.
. . . Each disease had its particular physician." — (Turner, " Samoa," London,
1884, p. 140.) See, in this connection, Banier's "Mythology," English transla-
tion, vol. i. p. 196, et seq.
" They (the ancients) had gods and goddesses for all the necessaries of our life,
from our cradles to our graves; viz., 1. for sucking; 2. for swathing ; 3. for
eating ; 4. for drinking ; 5. for sleeping ; 6. for husbandry ; 7. for venery ; 8. for
fighting ; 9. for physic ; 10. for marriage ; 11. for child-bed ; 12. for fire ; 13. for
water; 14. for the thresholds; 15. for the chimneys." — (Harington, "Ajax,"
P- 27.)
Consult, for the Chaldeans, " The Chaldean Account of Genesis," George Smith,
ICO SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
places abound in physicians ; some physicians are for the eyes, others
for the teeth, others for the parts about the belly, and others for inter-
nal disorders." — (Herodotus, "Euterpe," p. 82.)
Hone shows that every joint of the fingers was dedicated to some
saint. — (See his " Every-Day Book," vol. ii. p. 48.)
" But, under the venerated name of Hermes, were issued books of
astronomical forecasts of diseases, setting forth the evil influence of
malignant stars upon the unborn j telling how the right, eye is under
the sun, the left under the moon, the hearing under Saturn, the brain
under Jupiter, the tongue and throat under Mercury, smelling and
tasting under Venus, the parts that have blood under Mars. . . . The
early centuries next after the Christian era produced a rank crop of
literary forgeries." — (See " Saxon Leechdoms," vol. iii. pp. 11, 12.)
"The New Zealanders gave a separate deity to each part of the
body." — ("Folk-Medicine," Black, p. 11.)
The interview between Moses and Jehovah, where the latter refused
to allow the prophet to see the glory of his face, but made him content
himself with a view of his posterior, indicates that the sacred writers of
the earlier periods were living in an atmosphere of thought which
accepted all such ideas as those surrounding the Bel-Phegorian
ceremonials.
The Hebrews believed that Jehovah should be propitiated with
sweet savors : * " Offer up a sweet savor unto the Lord." Bel-Phegor
and other deities of the gentiles, who were the gods of particular parts
of the human body, would, in all probability, be pleased with oblations
coming especially from that particular part ; thus, the god of Hunting
New York, 1880, pages 11 and 125. Dibbara, tbe god of pestilence, has the title
of "The Darkening One," which recalls the passage in Psalm xci. 6, "The pes-
tilence that walketh in darkness." . . . "Each of the Babylonian gods had
a particular city." (Idem, p. 46.) "The Chaldeans had twelve great gods."
(Idem, p. 47.) See, also, "Chaldean Magic," Lenormant, 35. It was written of
the deceased (Egyptian), "There is not a limb of him without a god." ("Ritual
of the Dead," cap. xliii., idem.) See "Le Moyen Age Medicale," Dupouy, for the
list of saints and shrines to cure all afflictions, in Europe, Minor's translation,
p. 83. Those possessed claimed to be in the power of a demon, who entered their
body by one of the natural passages, sporting with their persons. (Idem, p. 50.)
The Church recognized the truth of these beliefs (idem, p. 40) ; see, also, notes
taken from Turner's "Samoa."
1 These ideas remained among the early Christians : "an odor of a sweet smell ;
a sacrifice, acceptable, well-pleasing to God." — (Phil. iv. 18. )
So, among the Chaldeans : " The gods smelt the savor, the gods smelt the good
savor." — ("Chaldean Account of Genesis," Smith, p. 286.)
THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR. 161
had offerings of game ; the gods of the Seas had sacrifices of fish ; bahies
were offered to the deities of Childbirth ; therefore the gods of the
fundament should, naturally, be regaled with excrement and flatulence.
Harington calls attention to David's prophecy in the 77th Psalm :
" Percussit inimicos suos in posteriores, opprobium sempiternum dedit
illis." " He smote his enemies in the hinder parts and put them to a
perpetual shame." — (" Ajax," p. 25.)
The absence of unity is the characteristic of all primitive forms of
religious thought ; hence, the various differentiations mentioned above
occur as a matter of religious necessity.
Among the practices prohibited by the Taoist religion : " A man
must not sing and dance on the last day of the moou. . . . Must not
weep, spit, or be guilty of other indecency towards the Xorth." —
(Legge, "Religions of China," p. 187.)
The Parsis have a curious idea suggestive of the Hebrew antagon-
ism to the worship of Bel-Phegor : "14. The rule is that when one re-
tains a prayer inwardly and wind shall come from below, or wind shall
come from the mouth, it is all one." (Shayast la Shayast, Max Midler's
edition, Oxford, 1880, cp. x. verse 14, p. 221. A footnote explains:
" Literally, ' both are one,' that is, in either case the spell of the vag or
prayer is broken.")
"The Bedawi, who eructates as a matter of civility, has a mortal
hatred to a crepitus ventris ; and were a by-stander to laugh at its
accidental occurrence, he would be at once cut down as a ' pundonor.'
The same is the custom among the Highlanders of Afghanistan. And
its artificial nature suggests direct derivation; for the two regions are
separated by a host of tribes, Persians and Beloch, who utterly ignore
the pundoner and behave like Europeans. The raids of the pre-Ish-
maelitish Arabs over the lands lying to the northeast of them are
almost forgotten ; still, there are traces, and this may be one of them."
— (Burton, "Arabian Nights," vol. v. p. 137.)
According to Xiebuhr, the voiding of wind is considered to be the
gravest indecency among the Arabs ; some tribes make a perpetual butt
of the offender once guilty of such an infraction of decorum ; the Bel-
ludjages, upon the frontiers of Persia, expel the culprit from the tribe.
Yet Xiebuhr himself relates that a sheik of the tribe " Montesids " once
had a contest of this kind among his henchmen, "avoit autorise un defi
dans ce genre entre ses domestiques et couronne le vainqueur." (Xie-
buhr, "Description de l'arabie," Amsterdam, 1774, p. 27.) Snoring
and Flatulence would seem to have been considered equally offensive
11
162 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
by the Tartars. See Marco Polo's reference to the mode of selecting
wives for the Grand Khan (in Purchas, vol. i. p. 82). He says that the
Grand Khan puts those deemed to be eligible under the care of " his
Barons' wives," " to see if they snore not in their sleepe, if in smell or
behaviour they bee not offensive."
" Yet it is holden a shame with them to let a fart, at which they
wondered in the Hollanders, esteeming it a contempt." — ("Negroes
of Guinea," Purchas, vol. v. p. 718.)
On the Gold Coast of Africa, the negroes "are very careful not to
let a fart, if anybody be by them ; they wonder at our Netherlander
that use it so commonly, for they cannot abide that a man should fart
before them, esteeming it to be a great shame and contempt done unto
them." — (Master Richard Jobson, a. d. 1620, in Purchas, vol. ii. p. 930.)
In the Russian sect of dissenters called the "Bezpopovtsi," "during the
service of Holy Thursday, certain of them, known as ' gapers ' or
'yawners,' sit for hours with their mouths wide open, waiting for min-
istering angels to quench their spiritual thirst from invisible chalices."
— (Heard, "Russian Church and Russian Dissent," pp. 200, 201.)
Bastion, in "Allerlei aus Volks-und-Menschenkunde" (vol. i. p. 9),
quotes from Kubary, " Religion of the Pelew Islands," to the effect
that in cases of death, the vagina, urethra, rectum, nostrils, and all
other orifices of the body are tightly closed with the fibres of certain
roots or sponge, to prevent the escape of any of the liquids of the body,
which seem to be of some use to the spirit of the deceased. — (Con-
tributed in a Personal letter from Dr. Gatchett of the Bureau of Eth-
nology, Washington, D. C.)
In Wallnchia, " No mode of execution is more disgraceful than the
gallows. The reason alleged is that the soul of a man with a rope
round his neck, cannot escape from his mouth." — (Maltebrun, "Uni-
versal Geography," Boston, 1847, vol. ii. p. 458, article "Hungary.")
" The soul is commonly supposed to escape by the natural openings
of the body, especially the mouth and nostrils." — (Frazer, "The Gol-
den Bough," vol. i. p. 125.)
" Caton appliquait a l'objet d'un de nos chapitres ; ' Nullum mihi
vitium facit.' . . . C'est ce que disait Caton lorsq'un de ses esclaves
petoit en sa presence." — (Bib. Scat., "Oratio pro Guano Humano,"
p. 21.)
In Angola, West Coast of Africa, flatulence is freely permitted
among the natives, but any license of this kind, taken while strangers
are in the vicinity, is regarded as a most deadly insult. — ("Mo-
THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR. 1C3
hongo," an African boy from Angola; interpretation by Rev. Mr.
Chatelaiu.)
The poet Horace " a consacre plusieurs vers au sujet qui nous occupe.
On peut voir particulierement la Satire VIII. qui contient le passage
suivant : —
" ' Mentior, at si quid merdis caput inquiner albis
Corvorum, atque in me veniat mictum atque cacatum
Julius, et fragilis pedacia, furque Voranus.' " — (Bib. Scat. p. 76.)
The celebrated English orator, Charles James Fox, is credited with
the authorship of " An Essay upon Wind," published anonymously in
London, and numbered 91 in the Bib. Scat. (p. 39).
Martin Luther had many struggles and disputes with his Satanic
Majesty, in all of which the latter came off second best. Melancthou
is cited as describing one of these, in which there were results
worthy of incorporation in this work: "Hoc dicto victus Daemon,
iudiguabundus secumque murmurans abiit, eliso crepitu, uon exiguo,
cujus fussimen tetri odoris dies aliquot redolebat hypocaustum." Vid.
Joh. Wier, de Prrestig. Daemon, cap. 7, p. m. 54, in Schurig, " Chylolo-
gia," p. 795, article " De Crepitu Diaboli."
"Luther relates a story of a lady who 'Sathanum crepitu ventris
fugavit.' " — (" Les Propos de Table de Luther," par G. Brunet, Paris,
1846, p. 22, quoted in Buckle's "Commonplace Book," p. 172, vol. ii.
of his "Works." All the English editions of Luther's "Table Talk,"
so far as known to the author, are " expurgated.")
" Ciceron, considerant le Peditua comme une victime innoeente,
opprimee par la civilisation de son temps, poussait en sa faveur le cri
de liberte et formulait ses droits." As a footnote to the foregoing we
read the following extract from Cicero : " Crepitus ajque liberos ac ructus
esse opportere." — (Lib. 9, Epist. 22.)
" Memento quia ventus est vita mea." — (Job. vii. 9.)
"Pedere te mallem, namque hoc nee inutile, dicit Symmachus, ct
risum res movet ista simul." — (Martial, vii. 17, 9.)
" ' Le Tonnerre, ce n'est qu'un Pet ; ' e'est Aristophane qui le dit."
BpOKTIJ KGU TTOp&l], 6/iOlU) (" XllL'eS.")
All the preceding from Bib. Scat., article, " Oratio pro Guano
Humane"
Consult Aristophanes, "The Clouds," act v. scene 2.
"Dissertation sur le dieu Pet," par M. Claude Terrin. — This author
is stated to have cited from Clemens Romanus and Saint Cassar. — (See
Bib. Scat., p. 37.)
1G4 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Suetonius lias the following remarks upon the Roman Emperor
Claudius : " It is said too that he intended to publish an edict . . .
allowing to all people the liberty of giving vent at table to any disten-
sion occasioned by flatulence." This was upon "hearing of a person
whose modesty, under such circumstances, had nearly cost him his
life." — (" Claudius," xxxii.)
Plutarch asks the question : " Question 95. Why was it ordained
that they that were to live chaste should abstain from pulse 1 ... Or
rather was it because they should bring empty and slender bodies to
their purifications and expiations? For pulse are windy and cause a
great deal of excrements that require purging off. Or is it because
they excite lechery by reason of their flatulent and windy nature "
("Morals," Goodwin's English translation, Boston, 1870, vol. ii. p.
254.)
" The fact that in honor of the arrival of friends, the house is swept
and strewn with sand, and that the people bathe at such occasions,
shows that cleanliness is appreciated. The current expression is that
the house is so cleaned that no bad smell remains to offend the guest.
For the same reason the Indian takes repeated baths before praying,
' that he may be agreeable to the Deity.' " — (" Report on the North-
western Tribes of Canada," Dr. Franz Boas, British Association for the
Advancement of Science, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Meeting, 1889, p. 19.)
"Saul went into a cave 'ut purgaret ventrem.'" — (Harington,
"Ajax," p. 25.)
OBSCENE TENURES. 165
XXII.
OBSCENE TENURES.
TN close connection with this worship of Bel-Phegor, if there ever
was such a worship, may be examined the obscene tenures by
which certain estates in England were held in " sergeantcy." No less an
authority than Buckle, the historian, deemed an investigation of these
not beneath the dignity of his intellect, as may be ascertained by a
glance at his article " Contributions to the History of the Pet," in his
" Commonplace Book," p. 472. He refers to " Miscellanea Antica
Anglicana," Blount's " Ancient Tenures," Luther's " Table Talk " (as
above), Dulaure's " Des Divinites Generatrices," Niebuhr's " Descrip-
tion of Arabia," Giffbrd's edition of Ben Jonson, " The Staple of
News," by Ben Jonson, Wright's " Political Ballads," in vols. iii. and
vii. of the Percy Society's publications. With the exception of the
first named, all the above have been examined, and a transcription
made of the notes, which will be found inserted in their proper
place.
" The Lord of the Manor of Essington holds tenure from the lord of
the Manor of Hilton in this way. He, the first named, must bring a
goose each New Year to the hall of the Manor of Hilton, and drive it at
least three times around the fire, ' while Jack of Hilton is blowing the
fire.' This Jack of Hilton is an image of brass, of about twelve inches
high, kneeling on his left knee, and holding his right hand upon his
head, and his left upon pego, or his viretrum, erected, having a little
hole at the mouth, at which, being filled with water, and set to a
strong fire, which makes it evaporate like an aelopile. it vents itself in
constant blast, so strongly that it is very audible, and blows the fire
fiercely." — (Blount, "Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors,"
Hazlitt's edition, London, 1874, p. 118.)
This recalls the "mannikin" of Brussels, which may have super-
seded some long since forgotten local deity ; it still serves political
purposes occasionally.
166 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Blount's work was first issued under the title of " Jocular Tenures."
The prevalence of phallic worship all over Flanders should be ad
verted to in mentioning the '• mannikin " of Brussels.
Dulaure (" Des differens Cultes," Paris, 1825, vol. ii. p. 272 et seq.)
describes the phallic shrines of Saints Foutin, Guerlichon et al. " Anne
d'Autriche, epouse de Louis XIII., y alia en pelerinage," — that is, to
the shrine of Saint Foutin.
He also shows that the use of the " raclure " of these phallic saiuts
prevailed in France until the opening years of the present century.
"Rowland, le Sarcere, holds one hundred and ten acres of laud iu
Hemington, County of Suffolk, by serjeautcy, for which on Christmas
Day, every year, before our sovereign lord the King of England, he
should perform altogether and at once a leap, a puif, and a fart." —
(Idem p. 154.)
" One Baldwin also formerly held these lands by the same service,
and was called by the nickname of Baldwin le Peteur, or Baldwin
the Farter." . — (Idem, p. 154.)
Dr. Fletcher, president of the Anthropological Society of Washing-
ton, D. C, called attention to the fact that reference to the above
tenure of Baldwin, " per saltuin, sufflatum, et pettum," is given in the
Ingoldsby Legends, " The Spectre of Tappington," based upon Blount.
Ducange, in his " Glossarium," proves the antiquity of these tenures,
which go back, so far as kuown, to the earliest years of the fourteenth
century." — (See Ducange, article " Bombus.")
Ducange also describes the peculiar custom governing the admission
of " filia communis " into the " villa Montis Lucii," of which more
anon.
" Barrington, in his ' Observations on the Statutes,' speaking of the
people, says : " They were also, by the customs prevailing in particular
districts, subject to services not only of the most servile, but the most
ludicrous nature.' ' Utpote Die Nativitatis Domini coram eo saltare.
buccas cum sonitu infiare, et ventrum crepitum edere.' (Struvii
Jurispr. Feud. p. 541.) Sir Richard Cox, in his ' History of Ireland,'
likewise mentions some very ridiculous customs which continued iu the
year 1565." — (Brand, " Popidar Antiquities," vol. i. p. 515, article
" Fool-Plough and Sword-Dance. ")
" Monstrelet, en decrivant une fete que donna en 1453 le due de
Bourgogne, dit qu'on y voyait ; uuo pucelle qui, de sa mamelle, ver-
sait hypocras en grande largesse ; a. cote de la pucelle etait un jeune
enfant qui, de sa broquette, rendait eau rose." — (Chroniq. vol. iii.
OBSCENE TENURES. 1G7
fol. 55 v ; Dulaure, " Traite des DifFerens Cultes," vol. i. p. 324, foot-
note.)
That these customs, absurd, obscene, irrational, as they appear in
the light of to-day, had their origin in the mists of antiquity is not at
all improbable ; neither is it a violent assumption to attribute a reli-
gious origin to them. It is conceded that they had all the force of
legalized customs ; and law was anciently part and parcel of religion's
dower.
The remarks of Ducange are inserted because they may not be
readily accessible to every reader. He quotes from Camden and
Spellman.
Baldwin " Qui tenuit terras in Comitatu Suffolciensi, per serjenciam
pro qua debuit facere, singulis anuis (die Xatali Domini), coram Domi-
no Rege, uuum saltum, unum sufflatum, et uuum bombulum."
" Hemingston, wherein Baldwin le Petteur (observe the name) held
land by serjeantcy (thus an ancient book expresses it), for which he
was obliged every Christmas Day to perform before our lord the King
of England one saltus, one sufflatus, and one bumbulus ; or as it is
read in another place, he held it by a saltus, a sufflus, and a pettus,
— that is (if I apprehend it aright), he was to dance, make a noise
with his cheeks, and let a fart. Such was the plain, jolly mirth of
those days." — (Camden, "Brittania," edition of London, 1753, vol i.
p. 444.) "
Grimm was impressed with the undeniable intermixture of the old
religious doctrine with the system of law ; for the latter, " even after
the adoption of the new faith, would not part with certain old forms
and usages." ("Teutonic MythoL," iutroduc. p. 12.) In another para-
graph he says : " I shall try elsewhere to show in detail how a good
deal in the gestures and attitudes prescribed for certain legal transac-
tions savors of priestly ceremony at sacrifice and prayer." — (Idem,
vol. i. p. 92.)
168 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXIII.
TOLLS OF FLATULENCE EXACTED OF PROSTITUTES
IN FRANCE.
A NOTHER odd usage of which no explanation has been transmitted
^*- is thus described by Ducange, Dulaure, and others : —
"En outre, chaque fille publique qui se livre a quelque homme que
ce soit, lorsqu'elle entre pour la premiere foia dans la ville de Mont-
lucon, doit payer sur le pont de cette ville quatre deniers, ou y faire
uu pet." — (Dulaure, " des Divin. Generat." p. 279, quoting from
Ducange, " Glossarium," article " Bombus.")
In a work by the Abbe Roubaud. entitled " La Peterade, poeme en
quatre chauts," we are informed, " II reuvoie a Ducange pour prouver
qu'en France on admettait les pets comme monnaie de cours en paiement
des peages. . . . Bombi pro scudis valebant." — (" Bib. Scatalogica,"
p. 48.)
If we may believe Victor Hugo, the custom of the " peage " at the
bridge of Montluc was generally known to the people of France in
the fifteenth century. Thus, in the first chapter of " Notre Dame,"
the populace of Paris, at the Feast of Fools, are represented as indulg-
ing in much badinage, —
" Dr. Claude Choart, are you seeking Marie la Giffards?"
" She 's in the Rue de Glatignv."
"She's paying her four deniers, — quatuor denarios."
" Aut unuru bumbum."
Dulaure again quotes Ducange in regard to the tolls demanded of
public women first crossing the bridge at Montluc. He finds de-
scription of this peculiar toll in registers dating back to 1398 ; he also
sees the resemblance between this toll and the tenure of the Manor of
Essington. — (See " Traite des Dif. Cultes,"' vol. ii. p. 315, footnote.)
Surgeon Robert M. O'Reilly, U. S. Army, states that among the
Irish settlers who came to the United States in the closing hours of the
last century the expression was common, in speaking of Flatulence, to
term it " Sir-Reverence."
TOLLS OF FLATULENCE EXACTED OF PROSTITUTES. 169
" Sir-Reverence. In old writers, a common corruption of ' save rev-
erence,' or ' saving your reverence,' — an apologetic phrase used when
mentioning anything deemed improper or unseemly, and especially
a euphemism for stercus humanum." ' Cagada,' a surrevereuce." —
(Stevens's " Sp. Diet.," 1706.)
"Siege, stool, sir-reverence, excrement." — (Bishop Wilkins's " Es-
say towards a Philosophical Language," 1688, p. 241.)
" Thoo grins like a dog eating sir-reverence." (Holderness, " Glos-
sary, English Dialect Society.") Compare Spanish salvanor, anus.
(Stevens.) — (" Eolk- Etymology," Rev. A. Smith Palmer, Loudon,
1882.)
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF BRIDGE-BUILDING.
It is quite within the bounds of argument and proof to show that
the Romans looked upon the building of a bridge as a sacred work.
Upon no other hypothesis can we make clear why their chief priest
was designated " the Greatest Bridge-Builder " (the Pontifex Maximus).
That this idea was transmitted to the barbarians who occupied Conti-
nental and insular Europe would be a most plausible presumption,
even were historical evidence lacking.
Concerning the tolls exacted from the prostitutes who crossed cer-
tain bridges in France, and the tenures by which certain estates were
held in England, we have to bear in mind that during the Middle Ages
bridges were erected by bodies or associations of bridge-builders, which
seem to have been secret societies. " It seems not improbable that
societies or lodges of bridge-builders existed at an early period, and
that they were relics of the policy of Roman times ; but the history of
such societies is involved in obscurity. The Church appears to have
taken them up and encouraged them in the twelfth century, and then
they were endowed with a certain religious character. . . . The order
of bridge-builders at Avignou, with the peculiar love of punning which
characterized the Middle Ages, were called ' fratres pontiticales,' and
sometimes ' fratres pontis ' and ' factores pontium.' . . . According to
Ducange (Gloss, v. fratres pontis), their dress was a white vest with a
sign of a bridge and cross of cloth on the breast." (" Essays on
Archaiological Subjects," Thomas Wright, London, 1861, vol. ii. p. 137
et seq., article " Mediaeval Bridge-Builders.") In this connection it
may be just as well to remember that the Pope of Rome is still the
Pontifex Maximus.
Knowing that bridges were constructed by secret societies, we
have fought out half our battle ; for these secret societies were un-
170 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
doubtedly under the patronage and protection of some god in heathen
times, or of some saint in later days, reserving for the honor of the
latter the same ritual which had been consecrated to the devotion of
the heathen predecessor.
The following from Fosbroke is pertinent : " Plutarch derives the
word ' Pontifex ' from sacrifices made upon bridges, — a ceremony of
the highest antiquity. These priests are said to have been commissioned
to keep the bridges in repair, as an indispensable part of their office.
This custom no doubt gave birth to the chapel on London bridge, and
the offerings were of course for repairs." In another place he mentions
" the annexation of chapels to almost all our bridges of note.'' —
("Cyclopedia of Antiquities," London, 1843, vol. i. pp. 62, 146,
article " Bridges.")
" Gottling (Gesch. d. Rom. Staatsv. p. 173) thinks that 'Pontifex'
is only another form for ' pompifex,' which would characterize the
pontiffs only as the managers and conductors of public processions and
solemnities. But it seems far more probable that the word is formed
from pons and face re, . . . and that consequently it signifies the priest
who offered sacrifices upon the bridge." — (" Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Antiquities," William Smith, LL. D., Boston, 1819, article
" Pontifex.")
" Les Romains avaient reuni en college sacerdotale leurs construc-
teurs de ponts." — (" Les Primitifs," Elie Reclus, Paris, 1S85, p. 116.)
Among the Romans — who were the great architects of the European
world, and whose aqueducts, baths, roads, and bridges have never
been approached in strength or beauty by those of any other nation
about them — it was to be expected that the title of the great priest
should be Pontifex Maximus, on the same principle that among the
Todas of the Nilgherris, who are pre-eminently a pastoral race, the
chief medicine man or priest is called Palal, " meaning the Great
Milker." — (See for these statements "Les Primitifs," Reclus, p. 260,
article "Les Monticules des Nilgherris.")
The legends of the Middle Ages, all over Europe, from South Ger-
many to Scandinavia, are filled with references to bridges, mills, and
churches, but especially bridges, built by the Devil exclusively or by
his assistance ; aud in every case there is the suggestion of human
sacrifice having been offered.
"As a rule, the victims were captive enemies, purchased slaves or
great criminals. . . . Hence, in our own folk-tales, the first to cross
the bridge, the first to enter the new building or the country, pays
TOLLS OF FLATULENCE EXACTED OF PROSTITUTES. 171
with his life, which meant falls a sacrifice. . . . Iu folk-tales we find
traces of the immolation of children ; they are killed as a cure for
leprosy, they are walled up iu basements. . . . Extraordinary events
might demand the death of kings' sous and daughters, nay, of kings
themselves." — ("Teutonic Mythology," Grimm, vol. i. p. 46.)
" When the Devil builds the bridge, he is either under compulsion
from men or is hunting for a soul ; but he has to put up witli the cock
or chamois, which is purposely made to run first across the new
bridge," or " they make a wolf scamper through the door " of the new
church, or a goat. — (Idem, vol. iii. p. 102.)
"When the new bridge at Halle, finished in 1843, was building the
common people fancied a child was wanted to be walled iuto the foun-
dations."— (Idem, vol. iii. p. 1142.)
" In modem Greece, when the foundation of a new building is being
laid, it is the custom to kill a cock, a ram, or a lamb, and to let its
blood flow on the foundation-stone, under which the animal is after-
wards buried. The object of the sacrifice is to give strength and sta-
bility to the building. But sometimes, instead of killing an animal,
the builder entices a man to the foundation-stone, secretly measures
his body or a part of it, or his shadow, and buries them under the
foundation-stone, or he lays the foundation-stone on the man's shadow.
It is believed that the man will die within a year." — ("The Golden
Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 144.)
It is not our purpose to cam- this part of the discussion farther.
The curious may consult Grimm, who shows the frequency with which
human victims were walled up alive iu new castles, ramparts, bridges,
and other structures. As time passed on and man grew wiser, there
was a substitution of a coffin as a symbol of the human victim; in
stables a calf or a lambwas buried alive under the main door, some-
times a cock or a goat ; under altars, a live lamb ; in newly opened
graveyards, a live horse. All this testimony points conclusively to the
fact that every such structure was begun at least under auspices from
which all traces and suggestions of heathenism had not yet been elimi-
nated ; consequently we shall not be very much in error in deciding
that there was some survival of a religious rite in the peculiar cere-
mony insisted upon at crossing the bridge of Moutluc, or that it, as all
others, was built by architects who still adhered to the old cultus, and
had influence enough with the rustic population to secure the incor-
poration of certain features of a sacred character belonging to the
superseded ritual, and which have come down to us, or almost to us,
in a more or less mutilated and distorted condition.
172 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
A very interesting article is to be found in " Melusiue," Paris, May 5,
1888, which may be read with great profit at this moment ; it is en-
titled " Les Kites de la Construction," and relates the popular tradi-
tion of the failure to maintain a bridge at a place called Resporden, in
Cornwall, as each was swept away by flood almost as soon as com-
pleted. The good people of the vicinity suspected sorcery and witch-
craft, and consulted a witch, whose directions were couched in these
terms : " Si les gens de Resporden veulent avoir un pont qui ne fasse
plus la culbute, ils devront enterrer vivant dans les fondations un petit
garcon de quatre aus. . . . On placera l'enfaut dans uue futaille de-
foncee, tout nu, et il tiendra d'une main une chandelle bcnite, de
l'autre nu morceau de pain."
An unnatural mother was found who gave her infant son for the
sacrifice, receiving some compensation, and the poor victim was walled
up alive as directed ; the bridge was completed, and has since with-
stood all the ravages of storm and freshet ; but the tale still repeats the
last words of the hapless babe, —
" Ma chandelle est morte, ma mere,
Et de pain, il ne me reste miette."
The unnatural mother very properly went insane in a few days after
the sacrifice ; and the wail of the abandoned babe is still to be heard
in the moaning of the winds and the sobs of the rains that fall upon
Resporden.
OBSCENE SURVIVALS IX GAMES OF ENGLISH RUSTICS. 173
XXIV.
OBSCENE SURVIVALS IN THE GAMES OF THE
ENGLISH RUSTICS.
f"PHE rough games of the English rustics are not altogether free from
-*- vestiges of the same nature as have been recorded of the Arabian
sheik in preceding pages. For example, in Northumberland, England,
there was a curious diversion called " F g for the pig." Brand
gives no explanation of the custom, which may be allied to the jocular
tenures mentioned by Blount, and with them to the worship of Bel-
Phegor. Brand says : " The ancient grossierete of our manners would
almost exceed belief. In the stage directions to old Moralites we
often find, ' Here Satan letteth a f .' " — (' Popular Antiquities,"
vol. ii. p. 9, article " Country Wakes.")
In London itself such "survivals" lingered down to very recent
periods. " In former times the porters that plyed at Billingsgate
used civilly to entreat and desire every man that passed that way to
salute a post that stood there in a vacant place. If he refused to do
this, the}' forthwith laid hold of him, and by main force bouped his
against the post ; but if he quietly submitted to kiss the same, and
paid down sixpence, then they gave him a name, and chose some one of
the gang for his godfather. I believe this was done in memory of
some old image that formerly stood there, perhaps of Belius or Belin.-'
— (Brand, " Popular Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 433, article " Kissing the
Post.")
All these customs, absurd as they seem to us, may have been parts
of the ritual of deities of the same class as Bel-Phegor, who looked
after the excreta perhaps, and the organs connected therewith; some
kind of a tribute was demanded, and none could be more appropriate
than the offering of the parts or the submission to some pain inflicted
upon them by those in charge of the shrine.
Crossing the Atlantic, a custom suspiciously like the preceding,
was still to be heard of, as a rough boyish prank, in Philadelphia,
174 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Penn., thirty or more years ago. Whenever it happened that any boy
was guilty of flatulence, all the party of school-boys would cry, " Touch
wood ! " and run to touch the nearest tree-box ; those who were slow in
doing this were pounded by the more rapid ones.
" Then, lads and lasses, merry be,
And, to make sport,
I f 1 and snort."
(" The Pranks of Robin Goodfellow," supposed to be by Ben Jonson, quoted in
Hazlitt's "Fairy Tales," London, 1875, p. 420.)
The following memoranda from Buckle, " Commonplace Book," seem
to have no value beyond merely filthy stories : —
" Ludlow's f was a prophetique trump ;
There never was anything so jump ;
'T was a very type of a vote of this rump,
Which nobody can deny."
Ludlow is a stanch Republican. The incident alluded to was a sub-
ject of much merriment, and exercised the pen of some of the choicest
poets of the latter half of the seventeenth century. — (" Ballad : A
New Year's Gift for the Rump," Jau. 5, 1G59, and footnote in Percy
Society's " Early English Poetry," London, 1841, vol. iii. p. 176.)
" And then my poets,
The same that writ so subtly of the fart."
(" The Alchemist," Ben Jonson, act ii. scene 1.)
"Who the author alluded to should be I cannot say. In the col-
lection of poems called ' Musarum Delicise ; or, The Muse's Recrea-
tion,' by Sir John Ennis and Dr. Smith, there is a poem called ' The
Fart censured iu the Parliament House.' It was occasioned by an es-
cape of that kind in the House of Commons. I have seen part of this
poem ascribed to an author in the time of Elizabeth, and possibly it
may be the thing referred to by Jonson." (Whallev.) But Gifl'ord,
from whose later editions I have drawn my material, comments to the
effect that "this escape, as Whalley calls it, took place in 1607, long
after the time of Elizabeth. The ballad is among the Harleian Manu-
scripts, and is also printed in the State Poems ; it contains about forty
stanzas of the most wretched doggerel." — (Gifford's edition of Jon-
son, London, 1816.)
" The Fool of Cornwalle." " I was told of a humorous knight dwel-
ling in the same countrey (that is, Cornwall), who upon a time, having
OBSCENE SURVIVALS IX GAMES OF ENGLISH RUSTICS. 175
gathered together in one open market-place a great assemblie of knights,
squires, gentlemen, and yeomen, and whilest they stood expecting to
heare some discourse or speech to proceed from him, he, in a foolish
manner (not without laughter), began to use a thousand jestures, turn-
ing his eyes this way and then that way, seeming always as though
presently he would have begun to speake, and at last, fetching a deepe
sigh, with a grunt like a hogge, he let a beastly loud fart, and tould
them that the occasion of this calling them together was to no other
end but that so noble a fart might be honoured with so noble a com-
pany as there was." — (" Jack of Dover's Quest of Inquiry," in Percy
Society, vol. vii. p. 30, London, 1852. "Jack of Doverj" a. d. 1604.)
" The Foole of Lincoln." " There dwelleth of late a certaine poore
labouring man in Lincoln, who, upon a time, after his wife had so re-
viled him with tongue nettle as the whole streete rung again for weari-
ness thereof, at last he went out of the house, and sate him downe
quietly upon a blocke before his owne doore ; his wife, being more oul
of patience by his quietness and gentle sufferaunce, went up into the
chamber, and out at the window powred downe a pisse-pot upon Lis
head ; which when the poor man sawe, in a merry moode he spake
these words : ' Now, surely,' quoth he, ' I thought at last that after so
great a thunder we should have some raiue.' " — (Idem, vol. vii. p. 15.)
The preceding filthy pleasantry comes down from a very distin-
guished origin. Harington recalls the adventure of the " good Socrates,
who, when Xantippe had crowned him with a chamber-pot, he bore it
oft' single with his head and shoulders, and said to such as laughed
at it, —
" It never yet was deemed a wonder
To see that rain should follow thunder."
("AjaxV'p. 94.)
" Nathaniel. They write from Libtzig (reverence to your ears)
The art of drawing farts from out of dead bodies
Is by the brotherhood of the Rosie Cross
Produced unto perfection, in so sweet
And rich a tincture."
("The Staple of News," Ben Jonson, Gifford's edition, London, 1816, act iii.
scene 1, p. 240.)
176 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXV.
URINE AND ORDURE AS SIGNS OF MOURNING.
/^1ARE should be taken to distinguish between the religious use of
^ ordure and urine, and that in which they figure as outward signs
of mourning, induced by a frenzy of grief, or where they have been
utilized in the arts.
Lord Kingsborough (Mexican Antiquities, vol. viii. p. 237) briefly
outlines such ritualistic defilement in the Mortuary Ceremonies of
Hebrews and Aztecs, giving as references for the latter Diego Duran,
and for the former the prophet Zechariah, chap. iii. : "Now Joshua
was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel," etc.
" The nearest relations cut their hair and blacken their faces, and
the old women put human excrement on their heads,- — the sign of
the deepest mourning." — (" The Native Tribes of South Australia,"
Adelaide, 1879, pp. 200, received through the kindness of the Royal
Society, New South Wales, T. B. Kyngdou, Secretary.)
URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 177
XXVI.
URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES.
^I"HIE economical value of human and animal excreta would seem to
-*- have obtained recognition among all races from the earliest ages.
It is not venturing beyond limits to assert that a book could be written
upon this phase of the subject alone. It is not. essential to incorporate
here all that could be compiled, but enough is submitted to substan-
tiate the statement just made, and to cover every line of inquiry.
It might perhaps be well to consider whether or not the constant
use of and familiarity with human urine and ordure in houses, arts,
and industries of various kinds would have a tendency to blunt the
sensibilities of rude races, so that in their rites we could look for the
introduction of these loathsome materials ; just as we find that all
those races whose women are allowed to go naked place a very slight
value upon chastity.
"It certainly is not possible to separate the religious uses of urine
from its industrial and medical uses. . . . Probably nearly everywhere
it has been the first soap known. Does not this aspect of the matter
need to be insisted on, even from the religious point of view? ... In
England and France, and probably elsewhere, the custom of washing
the hands in urine, with an idea of its softening and beautifying in-
fluence, still subsists among ladies, and I have known those who con-
stantly made water on their hands with this idea." — (Havelock Ellis,
" Contemporary Science Series," London, Personal letter.)
TANNING.
The inhabitants of Kodiak employ urine in preparing the skins
of birds, according to Lisiansky. — (" Voyage round the World,"
London, 1814, p. 214.)
" Les gants, articles de grand luxe, et de haute elegance, faits pour
recouvrir de blanches mains et des bras dodus, sont imbibe d'un jaune
178 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
d'ceuf largement additionne dudit liquide ambre." — ("Les Primitifs,"
Reclus, p. 72.)
By the Eskimo urine is preserved for use in tanning skins,1 while
its employment in the preparation of leather, in both Europe and
America, is too well understood to require any reference to authorities.
The Kioways of the Great Plains soaked their buffalo hides in urine
to make them soft and flexible.8
Urine is employed by the Tchuktchi of Siberia " in curing or tanning
skins." — (" In the Lena Delta," Melville, Boston, Mass., 1885, p. 318.)
Sauer says that the Yakuts tan deer and elk skins with cow-dung. —
("Expedition to the North parts of Kussia," London, 1802, p. 131.
Dung is used in tanning by the Bongo of the upper Nile region. —
(See Schweinfurth, " Heart of Africa," London, 1878, vol. i. p. 134.)
Bernal Diaz, in his enumeration of the articles for sale in the
"tianguez" or market-places of Tenochtitlan, uses this expression:
" I must also mention human excrements, which were exposed for sale
in canoes lying in the canals near this square, which is used for the
tanning of leather; for, according to the assurances of the Mexicans,
it is impossible to tan well without it." — (Benial Diaz, "Conquest of
Mexico," London, 1844, vol. i. p. 23G.)
The same use of ordure in tanning bear-skins can be found among
the nomadic Apaches of Arizona, although, preferentially, they use the
ordure of the animal itself.
Gomara, who also tabulated the articles sold in the Mexican mar-
kets, does not mention ordure in direct terms ; his words are more
vague: "All these things which I speak of, with many that I do not
know, and others about which I keep silent, are sold in this market of
the Mexicans." 8
Urine figures as the mordant for fixing the colors of blankets and
other woollen fabrics woven by the Navajoes of New Mexico, by the
Moquis of Arizona, by the Zufiis and other Pueblos of the Southwest,
1 They also keep urine in tubs in their huts for use in dressing deer and seal
skins. (Hans Egede; also quoted in Iiichardson's "Polar Regions," Edinburgh,
1861, p. 304. ) The same custom has been noted in Alaska. The same thing
mentioned by Egede's grand-nephew, Hans Egede Saabye. (" Greenland," London,
1816, p. 6.)
2 The whole process was carefully observed by Captain Robert G. Carter, 4 th
Cavalry, U. S. Army.
8 "Todas estas cosas que digo y muchas que no sd y otras que callo se venden
en este mercado destos de Mejico." — (Gomara, " Historia de la Conquista de
Mejico," p. 349.)
URINE AMD ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 179
by the Araucanians of Chili, by Mexicans, Peruvians, by some of the
tribes of Afghanistan, and other nations, by all of whom it is carefully
preserved.
BLEACHING.
" Roman fullers used human urine in their business, and Pliny says
it was noticed that they never suffered from gout." — (Pliny, " Natural
History," lib. xxviii. cap. 3 : Bohn).
Urine has also been employed as a detergent in cleaning wool. —
(Encyclopajdia Britanuica, article " Bleaching.")
Urine is used in dyeing by the people of Ounalashka, according to
Langsdorff, "Voyages" (vol. ii. p. 47) ; also, accurding to Sarytschew,
in " Philip's Voyages " (vol. vi. p. 72).
The same use of it has been attributed to the Irish by Camden, in
"Brittania," edition of London, 1753, vol. ii. p. 1419. His statement
is quoted by Buckle : " In 1562, O'Neal, with some of his companions,
came to London and astonished the citizens by their hair flowing in
locks on their shoulders, on which were yellow surplices, dyed with
saffron or stained with urine." — (" Commonplace Book," vol. ii.
p. 236.)
"As a substitute for alum, urine was employed." — ("Folk-Lore of
the Pennsylvania Germans," W. J. Hoffman, M. D., in " Journal of
American Folk-Lore," 1889.)
" The preparation of blue, violet, and bluish-red coloring matters
from lichens by the action of the ammonia of stale urine, seems to
have been known at a very early period to the Mediterranean peoples,
and the existence, down almost to the present day, of such a knowl-
edge in the more remote parts of Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia,
renders it not improbable that the art of making such dyes was not
unknown to the northern nations of Europe also." — (" The Manners
and Customs of the Ancient Irish," Eugene O'Curry, introduction
by W. K. Sullivan, London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and New York, 1873,
p. 450.)
PLASTER.
As a plaster for the interior of dwellings, cow-dung has been used
with frequency ; that the employment of the ordure of an animal held
sacred by so many peoples has a religious basis, is perhaps too much
to say, but it will be shown, further on, that different ordures were
ISO SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
kept about houses to ensure good luck or to avert the maleficence
of witchcraft.
Marco Polo has the following : (Iu Malabar) " there are some
called Gaui, who eat such oxen as die of themselves, but may not kill
them, and daub over their houses with cow-dung." — (Marco Polo, in
Piukerton, vol. vii. p. 162.)
The huts in Senegal were plastered " with cow-dung, which stunk
abominably." — (Adamsou, " Voyage to Senegal," in Pinkerton, vol.
xvi. p. 611.)
" The cow-dung basements around the tents " of the Mongols are
spoken of by Rev. James Gilmour. — ("Among the Mongols," London,
1883, p. 176.)
"A floor is next made of soft tufa and cow-dung." — (Livingston,
"Zambesi," London, 1865, p. 293.)
Animal dung is used as a mortar by the inhabitants of Turkey in
Asia living in the valley of the Tigris. — (See " Assyrian Discoveries,"
George Smith, New York, 1876, p. 82.)
The natives of the White .Nile, the tribes of the Bari, make
"a cement of ashes, cow-dung, aud sand," with which "they plaster
the floors and enclosures about their houses." — ("The Albert \v-
anza," Sir Samuel Baker, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 58. See the same
author for the Latookas, idem, p. 135 ; and for the statemeut that the
Obbos plaster enclosures, walls, aud floors alike, see pp. 203, 262.)
Pliny tells us that the threshing-floors of the Roman farmers were
paved with cow-dung ; in a footnote it is stated that the same rule
obtains in France to this day. — (Pliny, lib. lxxviii. cap. 71 : Bohn).
Horse-dung was considered very valuable as a luting for chemical
stills and furnaces. — (See Schurig, " Chylologia," p. 815; also, as a
" Digesting medium," idem.)
Of the Yakuts of Siberia it is related : " In dirtiness they yield
to none ; for a grave author assures us that the mortars which they
use for bruising their dried fish are made of cow-dung hardened by the
frost." — (Maltebrun, "Universal Geography," vol. i. p. 347.)
" The people of Jungeiou . . . collected the dung of cows and
sheep . . . dried it, roasted it on the fire, and aftewards used it for a
bed." — (Mungo Park, " Travels in Africa," in Pinkerton, vol. xvi.
p. 834.)
" The vessels in which they (the Yakuts) stamp their dried fish,
Roots and Berries, are made of dried Oxen and Cow's dung." — (Van
Straleuberg, p. 382.)
URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 181
The Index to the first volume of Purchas has " Dung bought by
sound of tabor, p. 270, 1. 40 ; " and " Dung of Birds, a strange report
of it ; " but neither of these could be found in the main portion of
the volume.
AS A CURE FOR TOBACCO.
The best varieties of Tobacco coming from America were arranged
in bunches, tied to stakes, and suspended in privies, in order that the
fumes arising from the human ordure and urine might correct the cor-
rupt aud noxious principles in the plant in the crude state. — (See
Schurig, "Chylologia," p. 776. "Ex paxillo aliquaudiu suspendere in
Cloacis Tabacum," etc.)
" I heard lately from good authority that, in Havana, the female
urine is used in cigar-manufacturing as a good maceration." — (Per-
sonal letter from Dr. Gustav Jaeger, Stuttgart, August 29, 1888.)
TO RESTORE THE ODOR OF MUSK AND THE COLOR OF CORAL.
The odor of musk and the color of coral could be restored by sus-
pending them in a privy for a time. — (See Dauielus Beckherius,
'• Medicus Microcosmus," London, 1600, p. 113.)
" Paracelsus scil. mediante digestione stercus humanum ad odorem
Moschi redigere voluit." — (Etmuller, "Opera Omnia," Comment.
Ludovic. Lyons, 1690, vol. ii. pp. 171, 172.)
"Moschi odorem deperditum restitui posse, si in loco aliquo, ubi
urina et excrementa alvina putrescunt, detineatur, apud autores
legimus." — (Schurig, "Chylologia," p. 768.)
" Fit, ut Moschus longo tempore semittat odorem, quem tamen
recuperat si irroretur cum pueri urina, vel si suspendatur in latrina
humana." — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 276.)
CHEESE MANUFACTURE.
" A storekeeper in Berlin was punished some years ago for having
used the urine of young girls with a view to make his cheese richer
and more piquant. Notwithstanding, people went, bought and ate
his cheese with delight. What may be the cause of all these foolish
and mysterious things? In human urine is the Anthropin." — (Per-
sonal letter from Dr. Gustav Jseger, Stuttgart, August 29, 1888.)
" En certaines fermes de Suisse on se sert, m-a-t'on-dit, de Purine
pour activer la fermentation de certaines fromages qu'ou y plonge." —
182 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
(Personal letter from Dr. Bernard to Captain Bourke, dated Cannes,
France, July 7, 1888.)
Whether or not the use of humau urine to ripen cheese originated in
the ancient practice of employing exerementitious matter to preserve
the products of the dairy from the maleficence of witches ; or, on the
other hand, whether or not such an employment as an agent to defeat
the efforts of the witches be traceable to the fact that stale urine was
originally the active ferment to hasten the coagulation of the milk
would scarcely be worth discussion.
OPIUM ADULTERATION.
The smoker of opium little imagines that, in using his deadly drug,
he is often smoking au adulterated article, the adulterant being hen
manure ; he is thus placed on a par with the American Indian smoking
the dried dung of the buffalo, and the African smoking that of the
autelope or the rhinoceros.
EGG-HATCHING.
In the description of the province of Quang-tong, it is stated that
the Chinese hatch eggs " in the Oven, or in Dung." — (Du Halde,
"History of China," London, 1741, vol. i. p. 238.) See the same
statement made in Purchas, vol. i. 270.
In China " their fish is chiefly nourished with the dung of Oxen that
greatly fatteth it." — (Perera, in Purchas, vol. i. p. 205.)
TAXES ON URINE.
The ftoman emperors imposed a tax and tolls upon urine because of
its usefulness in many things. — ("Dreck Apotheke," Paullini, p. 8.
See previous statements in this volume and consult Suetonius " Ves-
pasian.")
CHRTSOCOLI.ON.
There was a cement for fixing the precious metals, which cement was
known as " Chrysocollon," and was made with much ceremony from
the urine "of an innocent boy." There are various descriptions, but
the following, while brief, contain all the material points.
Galen describes this Chrysocollon, or Gold-Glue, as prepared by some
physicians from the urine of a boy, who had to void it into a mortar
of red copper while a pestle of the same material was in motion, which
urine carefully exposed to the sun until it had acquired the thickness
URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 183
of honey, was considered capable of soldering gold and of curing obsti-
nate diseases : " Attacnen medicameuturn quod ex urina pueri coufice-
tur quod quidam vocant chrysocollou, quia eo ad auri glutinationeiu
utuntur, ad ulcera difficilia sauatu optimum esse assero fit autem id
figura phiali coufecto mortario ex sere rubro habeutem pistillum ejusdem
materia? in quod mejeute puero pistillum circumages, identidem, ut
non tautum a mortario deradedet, etc." ("Opera Omnia," Kuhu's
edition, vol. xii. pp. 28G, 287.)
Dioscoridea describes the manufacture thus : " Quinetiam ex ea
(i. e. 'pueri inuocentis urina') et aere cyprio idoneurn ferruminaudo
glutea paratur." — ("Materia Medica," Kuhn's edition, vol. i. p. 227
et seq.)
If a boy's urine be rubbed up in a copper mortar with a copper pestle,
it makes a sort of mucilage which can be used to fasten articles of gold
together, as Sextus Placitus tells us: "Si pueri lotium cuprino mor-
tario et cuprino pistello contritum fuerit, aurum solidat." — (" De
Medicamentis ex Animalibus," edition of Lyons, 1537, pages not num-
bered, article, " De Puello et Puella Virgine.")
The definition given by Aviceuna, the Arabian authority, is: "Quae
fit ex urina iufantium mota in mortario aero cum aceto in sole." —
(Vol. i. p. 336, a 34 et seq.)
We also read of an " Alchymical 'Water," called "Diana," for trans-
muting metals into gold and silver; it was believed that this prepara-
tion was efficacious "ad mutandum Mercurium in Solem vel Lunam."
(" Sol " was gold, " Luna " was silver ; see notes from Paracelsus be-
low.) This "Diana" was employed in the preparation of " Crocus
Martis," as well as in that of " Oleum Martis," for giving metals the
color of gold, for polishing gold plate, for giving a fine temper to the
best iron or steel implements, and for making the " Chrysocolla " just
described. — ("Medicus Microcosm us," Beckherius, pp. 103-108.)
Paracelsus, speaking of the metals says : " Sol, that is Gold ; Luna,
that is silver ; Venus, that is Copper ; Mercury, that is Quicksilver ;
Saturnus, that is Lead ; Jupiter, that is Tinne ; Mars, that is Iron." —
("The Secrets of Physicke," English translation, London, 1G33, p.
117.)
FOR REMOVING INK STAINS.
Human urine was considered efficacious in the removal of ink-spots.
— (See Pliny, Bohn, lib. v. and lib. xxviii.)
184 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
AS AN ARTICLE OF JEWELRY.
Fossilized excrement is used in the manufacture of jewelry, under
the name of " Coprolite."
Lapland women carry a little case made from the bark of the birch
tree, " which they usually carry under the girdle " in which is to be
found reindeer dung, not as an amulet but to aid in weaning the young
reindeer by smearing the udders of the dams." — (See Leems' " Account
of Danish Lapland," in Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 405.)
But, from other sources, we have learned that the Laps attached the
most potent influences to ordure and urine believing that their rein-
deer could be bewitched, that vessels could be hastened or retarded in
their course, etc., by the use of such materials. Several examples of
this belief are given iu this volume ; see under " Witchcraft."
TATTOOING.
Laugsdorff noticed that urine entered into the domestic economy of
the natives of Ounalashka. He tells us that the tattooing was per-
formed with " a sort of coal dust mixed with urine, rubbed in " the punc-
tures made in the skin (" Voyages," vol. ii. p. 40). That the tattooing
with which savages decorate their bodies has a significance beyond a
simple personal ornamentation cannot be gainsaid, although the degree
of its degeneration from a primitive religious symbolism may now be
impossible to determine. Even if regarded in no other light than as a
meaus of clan-distinction, there is the suggestion of obsolete ceremonial,
because the separation into castes and gentes is in every case described
by the savages concerned as having been performed at the behest of some
one of their innumerable deities, who assigned to each clan its appro-
priate " totem." Clan marks may be represented in the tattooing, the
conventional signs of primitive races not having yet been sufficiently in-
vestigated ; for example, among the Apaches three marks radiating out
from a single stem represent a turkey, that being the form of the bird's
foot. At the dances of the Indians of the pueblo of Santo Domingo,
on the Rio Grande, New Mexico, the bodily decorations were, iu nearly
every case, associated with the clan " totem ; " but this fact never
would have been suspected unless explained by one of the initiated.
In one of the dances of the Moquis the members of the Tejon or Bad-
ger clan appeared with white stripes down their faces ; that is one of
the marks of the badger, as they explained.
URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 185
The author does not -wish to say much on this topic, since his atten-
tion was not called to it until a comparatively late period in his investi-
gations ; but he was surprised to learn that the Apaches, among whom
he then was, although marking themselves very slightly, almost in-
variably made use of an emblemism of a sacred character ; moreover,
it was very generally the work of some one of the " medicine men."
The tattooing of the people of Otaheite seen by Cook, was surmised
by him to have a religious significance, as it presented in many in-
stances " squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed representations of
men and dogs." (la Hawkesworth's " Voyages," London, 1773, vol. ii.
p. 190.) Every one of these people was tattooed upon reaching majority.
(Idem, p. l'Jl.) It is stated that certain chiefs in New Zealand, un-
able to write their names to a document presented to them for signa-
ture drew lines like those tattooed upon their faces and uoses." — (See
"Voyage of Adventure and Beagle," London, 1839, vol. ii. p. 586.)
Among the Dvaks of Borneo "all the married women are tattooed
on the hands and feet, and sometimes on the thighs. The decoration
is one of the privileges of matrimony, and is not permitted to unmar-
ried girls." — (•'Head-Hunters of Borneo," Carl Bock, London, 1881,
p. 67.)
A recent writer has the following to say on this subject : " The tat-
too marks make it possible to discover the remote connection between
clans ; and this token has such a powerful influence upon the mind
that there is no feud between tribes which are tattooed in the same way.
The type of the marks must be referred to the animal kingdom; yet
we cannot discover any tradition or myth which relates to the custom.
There is no reason for asserting that there is any connection between
the tattoo marks and Totemism, although I am personally disposed to
think that this is sometimes the case. The tattooing, which usually
consists in the imitation of some animal forms, may lead to the wor-
ship of such animals as religious objects." (" The Primitive Family,"
C. N. Starcke, Ph. D., New York, 1889, p. 42.) Here is an example
of putting the cart before the horse ; in all cases investigation will show
that the animal was a god, and for that reason was imprinted on the
person of the worshipper as a vow of supplication or prayer.
In auother place the same writer says that tattooing had " to be
performed by a priest." — (Idem, p. 2-11.)
The religious element in Totemism has been plainly revealed by W.
Robertson Smith in Encyclopaedia Britannica, article "Sacrifice," and
by James G. Frazer, M.A., in his " Totemism," Edinburgh, 18S7.
186 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Andrew Lang devotes several chapters to the subject (" Myth, Eitual,
and Religiou," Loudon, 1887, vol. i. cap. 3). He says of the Australian
tribes : " There is some evidence that in certain tribes the wingong or
totem of each man is indicated by a tattooed representation of it upon
his flesh " (p. 65). On another page, quoting from Long's " Voyages,"
1791, he says: "The ceremony of adoption was painful, beginning
with a feast of dog's flesh, followed by a Turkish bath, and a prolonged
process of tattooing." — (Idem, p. 71.)
A traveller of considerable intelligence comments in these terms
upon the bodily ornamentation of the Burmese: —
" Burmah is the land of the tattooed man. ... In my visit to
the great prison here, which contains more than three thousaud men,
I saw six thousand tattooed legs. . . . The origin of the custom I
have not been able to find out. It is here the Burmese sign of
manhood, and there is as much ceremony about it as there is about
the ear-piercing of girls which chronicles their entrance upon woman-
hood. There are professional tattooers, who go about with books
of designs. . . . The people are superstitious about it ; and certain
kinds of tattooing are supposed to ward oft" disease. One kind
wards off the snake-bite, and another prevents a man from drown-
ing."— (Frank G. Carpenter, in the "Bee," Omaha, Nebraska, May
19, 1889.)
Surgeon Corbusier, U. S. Army, says of the Apache-Yumas of Arizona
Territory, that " the married women are distinguished by seven nar-
row blue lines running from the lower lip down to the chin. . . .
Tattooing is practised by the women, rarely by the men. ... A
young woman, when anxious to become a mother, tattooes the figure of
a child on her forehead." — (In the " American Antiquarian," Novem-
ber, 1886.)
The "sectarial marks" of the Hindus are possibly vestiges of a for-
mer practice of tattooing. Coleman (" Mythology of the Hindus,"
London, 1832, p. 165) has a reference to them.
Squier, in his monograph upon " Manobosho," in " American His-
torical Review," 1848, says that the Mandaus have a myth in which
occurs the name of a god, " Tattooed Face."
Alice Oatman stated distinctly that " she was tattooed by two of
their (Mojaves) physicians," and " marked, not as they marked their
women, but as they marked their captives." Be that as it may, the
four lines on her chin, as well as can be discerned from the indifferent
woodcut, are the same as can be seen upon the chins of Mojave
URINE AND ORDURE IS INDUSTRIES. 187
women to-day. — (See Stratton's " Captivity of the Oatman Girls,"
San Francisco, 1857, pp. 151, 152.)
Maltebrun says of the inhabitants of the Island of Formosa : " Their
skin is covered with indelible marks, representing trees, animals, and
flowers of grotesque forms." — ("Universal Geography," American
edition, Philadelphia, 1832, vol. ii. lib. 43, p. 79, article "China.")
" The practice of marking the skin with the figures of animals,
flowers, or stars, which was in existence before the time of Mahomet,
has still left traces among the Bedouin women." — (Idem, vol. i. lib. 30,
p. 395.)
Speaking of the Persian ladies, the same authority says : " They
stain their bodies with the figures of trees, birds, and beasts, sun, moon,
and stars.'' — (Idem, vol. i. lib. 33, p. 428, article " Persia.")
In the " Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London,"
vol. vi., it is stated that the " Oraon boys (India) are marked when
children on the arms by a rather severe process of puncturatiou, which
they consider it manly to endure."
" Mojave girls, after they marry, tattoo the chin with vertical blue
lines." — (Palmer, quoted by H. H. Bancroft in "Native Paces,"
vol. i. p. 480.)
In the cannibal feast of the Tupis of the Amazon, Southey says, " The
chief of the clan scarified the arms of the Matador above the elbow,
so as to leave a permanent mark there ; and this was the Star and
Garter of their ambition, the highest badge of honor. There were
some who cut gashes in their breast, arms, and thighs on these occa-
sions, and rubbed a black powder in, which left an indelible stain." —
(Quoted by Herbert Spencer in "Descriptive Sociology.")
" A savage man meets a savage maid. She does not speak his
language, nor he hers. How are they to know whether, according
to the marriage laws of their race, they are lawful mates for each
other] This important question is settled by an inspection of their
tattoo marks. If a Thlinkeet man, of the Swan stock, meets an
Iroquois maid, of the Swau stock, they cannot speak to each other,
and the ' gesture language ' is cumbrous. But if both are tattooed
with the Swan, then the man knows that this daughter of the Swau
is not for him. . . . The case of the Thlinkeet man and the Iroquois
maid is extremely unlikely to occur, but I give it as an example of the
practical use among savages of representative art." — (" Custom and
Myth," Andrew Lang, New York, 1885, p. 292.)
" Tattooing is fetichistic in origin. Among all the tribes, almost
188 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
every Indian has the image of an animal tattooed on his breast or arm,
which can charm away an evil spirit or prevent harm to them." —
(Dormau, "Primitive Superstition," New York, 1881, p. 156.)
" The Eskimo wife has her face tattooed with lamp-black, and is
regarded as a matron in society." — (" Schwatka's Search," William
H. Gilder, New York, 1881, p. 250.) "I never saw any attempt at
figure or animal drawing for personal ornamentation. The forms are
generally geometrical in design and symmetrical in arrangement. . . .
None of the men are tattoed." — (Idem, p. 251.)
"The Mojaves of the Rio Colorado tattoo, but the explanation of
the marks was exceedingly vague and unsatisfactory. The women,
upon attaining puberty, are tattooed upon the chin, and there seem to
be four different patterns followed, probably representing as many
different phratric or clan systems in former times." — (See the author's
article in the " Journal of American Folk-Lore," Cambridge, Mass.,
July-September, 1888, entitled "Notes on the Cosmogony and The-
ogony of the Mojaves.")
Swan, in his notes upon the Indians of Cape Flattery, contents
himself with observing that their tattooing is performed with coal and
human urine.
" In order that the ghost may travel the ghost road in safety, it is
necessary for each Lakota during his life to be tattooed either in the
middle of the forehead or on the wrists. In that event, his spirit will
go directly to the ' Many Lodges.' ... An old woman sits in the
road, and she examines each ghost that passes. If she cannot find
the tattoo-marks on the forehead, wrists, or chin, the unhappy ghost
is pushed from a cloud or cliff, and falls to this world." — (Dr. J.
Owen Dorsey, in the " Journal of American Folk-Lore," April, 1889.)
Of the islands of the South Pacific, Kotzebue says, " I believe that
tattooing in these islands is a religious custom ; at least, they refused
it to several of our gentlemen at Otdia, assuring them that it could
only be done in Egerup." — ("Voyages." vol. ii. pp. 113, 135,
London, 1821.)
" Tattooing is by no means confined to the Polynesians, but this
' dermal art ' is certainly carried by them to an extent which is un-
equalled by any other people. ... It is practised by all classes. . . .
By the vast number of them it is adopted simply as a personal orna-
ment, though there are some grounds for believing that the tattoo
may, in a few cases and to a small extent, be looked upon as a badge
of mourning or a memento of a departed friend. Like everything
URI.VE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 189
else ia Polynesia, its origin is related in a legend which credits its
invention to the gods, and says it was first practised by the children
of Tharoa, their principal deity. The sons of Tharoa and Apouvarou
were the gods of tattooing, and their images were kept in the temples
of those who practised the art as a profession, and to them petitions
are offered that the figures might be handsome, attract attention, and
otherwise accomplish the purpose for which they submitted themselves
to this painful operation. ... To show any signs of suffering under
the operation is looked upon as disgraceful." — ("World," New York,
.May 10, 1890, quoting from "The Peoples of the World.")
" In the Tonga and Samoan Islands, the young men were all tat-
tooed upon reaching manhood ; before this, they could not think of
marriage. . . . Tattooing is still kept up to some extent, and is a
regular profession. . . . There are two gods, patrons of tattooing, —
Taenia and Tilfanga." — (See Turner's "Samoa.")
"One of the features of the Initiation among the Tort Lincoln
tribe was the tattooing of the young man and the conferring of a
new name upon him." — ("The Native Tribes of South Australia,"
Adelaide, 1879, received through the kindness of the Royal Society,
New South Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)
It is well to observe that each tribe in a given section has not only
its own pattern of tattooing, but its own ideas of the parts of t he
person to which the tattooing should be applied. Thus, among the
Indians of the northwest coast of British Columbia, " Tattooings are
found on arms, breast, back, legs, and feet among the Haidas; on
arms and feet among the Tshimshian, Kwakiutl, and Bilqula; on
breast and arms among the Nootka ; on the jaw among the coast
Salish women." — ("Report on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada,"
Franz Boas, in " Trans. Brit. Assoc. Advancement of Science," New-
castle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889, p. 12.)
Sullivan states that the custom of tattooing continued in England
and Ireland down to the seventh century; this was tiie tattooing with
woad. — -(See his Introduction to O'Curry's " Manners and Customs
of the Ancient Irish," p. 455.)
The Inuits believe that "les femmes bien tatoue'es" are sure of
felicity in the world to come. — (See " Les Primitifs," Reclus, Paris,
1885, p. 120.)
" Although the practice of the art is so ancient that we have
evidence of its existence in prehistoric times, and that the earliest
chronicles of our race contain references to it, yet the term itself ia
190 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
comparatively modern. . . . The universality as well as the great
antiquity of the custom has been shown by a French author, Ernest
Berchon, 'Histoire Medicale du Tatouage,' Paris, 1869, which begins
with a quotation from Leviticus xiv., which in the English version
reads thus : ' Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the
dead, nor print any marks upon you.' Don Caltnet, in commenting
upon this passage, says that the Hebrew literally means ' a writing of
spots.' Many Italians have been tattooed at Loretto. Around this
famous shrine are seen professional tattooers, ' Marcatori,' who charge
from half to three quarters of a lire for producing a design commemo-
rative of the pilgrim's visit to the shrine of Our Lady of Loretto. A
like profitable industry is pursued at Jerusalem . . . Religion has
some influence (in the matter of tattooing) from its tendency to pre-
serve ancient customs. At Loretto and Jerusalem tattooing is almost
a sacred observance." — ("Tattooing among Civilized People," Dr.
Robert Fletcher, Anthropological Society, Washington, D. C, 1883,
pp. 4, 12, and 26.)
" Father Mathias G. says that in Oceania every royal or princely
family has a family of tattooers especially devoted to their service, and
that none other can be permitted to produce the necessary adorn-
ment."— (Idem, p. 24.)
" Tatowiren, Narbenzeichnen und Korperbemalen " (Tattooing, Cica-
tricial Marking and Body Tainting), by Wilhelm Joest, Berliu, 1887,
a superbly illustrated volume, has been reviewed by Surgeon Wash-
ington Matthews, U. S. Army, in the " American Anthropologist,"
Washington, D. C, ending in these words, "The author's opinion,
however, that ' tattooing has nothing to do with the religion of sav-
ages, but is only a sport or means of adornment, which, at most, has
connection with the attainment of maturity,' is one which will not be
generally concurred in by those who have studied this practice as it
exists among our American savages."
AGRICULTURE.
In the interior of China, travellers relate that copper receptacles
along the roadsides rescue from loss a fertilizer whose value is fully
recognized.
These copper receptacles recall the " Gastra," of the Romans, already
referred to under the heading of " Latrines."
" Les Chinois fument leurs terres autant que cela est en leur pou-
URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 191
voir; ils emploient a cet usage toutes sortes d'engrais, mais principale-
ment les excrements huraains, qu'ils receuillent a cet effet avec grand
soin. On trouve dans les villes, dans les villages, et sur les routes, des
endroits faits expres pour la commodity des passans, et dans les lieux
ou il n'y a pas de semblables facilit«5s, des hommes vont ramasser soir
et matin les ordures et les mettent dans des panniers a l'aide d'un croc
de fer a trois pointes.
" On traffique dans ee pays de ce qu'on rejette aillenrs avec horreur
et celui qui recoit d'argent en France pour nettoyer une fosse, en donne
au contraire en Chine pour avoir la liberty d'en faire autant. Les ex-
crements sont portes dans de grands trous bien mastiques, faits en plein
campagne, dans lesquels on les delaye avec de l'eau et de l'urine et on
les repand dans les champs a mesure qu'on a besoin. On rencontre
souvent sur la riviere a Quanton des bateaux d'une forme particuliere
destines au transport de ces ordures et ce n'est pas sans surprise qu'on
en voit les conducteurs etre aussi pen affeetes qu'ils le paroissent de
l'odeur agre'able d'une pareille marchandise." — (" Voyage a Pekin,"
De Guignes, Paris, 1808, vol. iii. p. 322.)
" The dung of all animals is esteemed above any other kind of
manure. It often becomes an article of commerce in the shape of
small cakes, which are made by mixing it with a portion of loam and
earth, and then thoroughly drying them. These cakes are even
brought from Siam, and they also form an article of commerce between
the provinces. They are never applied dry, but are diluted with as
much animal water as can be procured." — ("Chinese Repository,"
Canton, 1835, vol. iii. p. 124.)
" They even make sale of that which is sent privately to some dis-
tance in Europe at midnight." (Du Halde, " History of China,"
Loudon, 1736, vol. ii. p. 120.) This statement of Father Du Halde
can be compared with what Bernal Diaz says of the markets of the
city of Mexico at the time of Cortes : " There are in every province a
great number of people who carry pails for this purpose ; in some
places they go with their barks into the canals which run on the back
side of the houses, and fill them at almost every hour of the day." —
(Du Halde, idem, p. 126.)
Rosinus Lentilius, in " Ephemeridum Physico-Medicorum," Leipsig,
1694, states that the people of China and Java buy human ordure in
exchange for tobacco and nuts. This was probably on account of its
value in manuring their fields, which, he tells us (p. 170), was done
three times a year with human ordure. This leads hitn to make the
192 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
reflection that man runs back to excrement, — " Unde stercus in ali-
mentum et hoc rursum in stercus."
" The Japanese manure their fields with human ordure. — (See Kem-
per's " History of Japan," in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 698.)
" Yea, tlie dung of men is there sold, and not the worse merchandise,
that stink yielding sweet wealth to some who goe tabouring up and
down the streetes to signifie what they woulde buy. Two or three hun-
dred sayle are sometimes freighted with this lading in some Port of
the Sea ; whence the fatted soyle yields three Haruests in a yeare." —
(Mendex Pinto, "Account of China," in Purchas, vol. i. p. 270.)
" Heaps of manure in ever}' field, at proper distances, ready to be
scattered over the corn." — (Turner, "Embassy to Tibet," London,
1806, p. 62.)
The Persians used pigeon's dung " to smoak their melons." — (John
Matthews Eaton, " Treatise on Breeding Pigeons," London, no date,
pp. 39, 40, quoting from Tavernier's first volume of " Persian
Travels.")
The finest variety of melon, "the sugar melon," "cultivated with
the greatest care with the dung of pigeons kept for the purpose." —
(" Persia," Benjamin, London, 1877, p. 428.)
Fosbroke cites Taveruier as saying that the King of Persia draws a
greater revenue from " the dung than from the pigeons" belonging to
him in Ispahan. The Persians are said to live on melons during the
summer months, and " to use pigeons' dung in raising them." — (" Cy-
clopaedia of Antiquities," vol. ii.)
Human manure was best for fields, according to Pliny (Nat. Hist,
lib. 17, cap. 9). Homer relates that King Laertes laid dung upon his
fields. Augeas was the first king among the Greeks so to use it, and
'• Hercules divulged the practice thereof among the Italians." — (Pliny,
idem, Holland's translation.)
Urine was considered one of the best manures for vines. ""Wounds
and incisions of trees are treated also with pigeon's dung and swine
manure. ... If pomegranates are acid, the roots of the tree are
cleared, and swine's dung is applied to them ; the result is that in the
first year the fruit will have a vinous flavor, but in the succeeding one
it will be sweet. . . . The pomegranates should be watered four times
a year with a mixture of human urine and water. . . . For the purpose
of preventing animals from doing mischief by browsing upon the
leaves, they should be sprinkled with cow-dung each time after rain."
— (Pliny, lib. 17, cap. 47.)
URINE AND ORDURE IX INDUSTRIES. 193
Schurig calls attention to the great -value attached by farmers and
viticulturists to human ordure, either alone or mixed with that of ani-
mals, in feeding hogs, in fertilizing fields, and in adding richness to
the soil in which vines grow. See " Chylologia," p. 795.
In Germany and France, during the past century, farmers and
gardeners were generally careful of this fertilizer.
" In the valley of Cuzco, Peru, and, indeed, in almost all parts of
the Sierra, they used human manure for the maize crops, because
they said it was the best." — (Garcillasso de la Vega, " Comentarios
Eeales," Clement C. Markham's translation, in Hakluyt Society, vol.
xlv. p. 11.)
" Conocian tambieu el uso de estercolar las tierras que ellos llama-
ban Vunaltu." — ("Historia Civil del Reyno de Chile," Don Juan
Ignacio Molina, edition of Madrid, 1788, p. 15.)
Amelie Rives, in her story " Virginia of Virginia," relates that a cer-
tain family of Virginia was taken down with the typhoid fever on ac-
count of "making fertilizer in the cellar." We may infer that this
"fertilizer" was largely composed of manure. This is the interview
between Mr. Scott and Miss Virginia Herrick : " ' The tarryfied fever's
a-ragin' up ter Annesville,' he announced presently. Virginia faced
about for the first time. 'Is it 1 " she asked ; ' who 's down 1 '
' Xigh all of them Davises. The doctor says as how it 's 'count o'
their makin' fertilizer in their cellar.' " — (In " Harper's Magazine,"
New York, January, 1888, p. 223.)
Animal manure was known as a fertilizer to the Jews (2 Kings ix. 37 ;
Jeremiah viii. 2, ix. 22, xvi. 4, and xxv. 33). Human manure also.
(Consult McC'lintock and Strong's Encyclopaedia, article " Dung.")
URINE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT.
Gomara explains that, mixed with palm-scrapings, human urine
served as salt to the Indians of Bogota, — " Hacen sal de raspaduras
de palma y orinas de hombre." — (" Hist, de las Indias," p. 202.)
Salt is made by the Latookas of the White Nile from the ashes of
goat's dung. — (See "The Albert Xyanza," Sir Samuel Baker, Phila-
delphia, 1869, p. 224.)
Pallas states that the Buriats of Siberia, in collecting salts from the
shores of certain lakes in their country, are careful as to the taste of
the same : " lis n'emploient que ceux qui ont un gout d' Urine et d'al-
kali." ("Voyages," Paris, 1793, vol. iv. p. 246.) This shows that
13
194 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
they must once have used urine for salt, as so many other tribes have
done.
The Siberians gave human urine to their reindeer : " Nothing is so
acceptable to a reindeer as human urine, and I have even seen them run
to get it as occasion offered." — (John Dundas Cochrane, " Pedestrian
Journey Through Siberian Tartary," 1820-23, Philadelphia, 1824,
p. 235.)
Melville also relates that he saw the drivers urinate into the mouths
of their reindeer in the Lena Delta. — (Personal letter to Captain
Bourke.)
Here the intent was evident ; the animals needed salt, and no other
method of obtaining it was feasible during the winter months. Coch-
rane is speaking of the Tchuktchi ; but he was also among Yakuts
and other tribes. He walked from St. Petersburg to Kanitschatka and
from point to point in Siberia for a total distance of over six thousand
miles. His pages are dark with censure of the filthy and disgusting
habits of the savage nomads, as, of the Yakuts, " Their stench and filth
are inconceivable. . . . The large tents (of the Tchuktchi) were dis-
gustingly dirty and offensive, exhibiting every species of grossness and
indelicacy." Inside the tents men, women, and girls were absolutely
naked. " They drink only snow-water during the winter, to melt
which, when no wood can be had, very disgusting and dirty means are
resorted to," etc. But nowhere does he speak of the drinking of hu-
man urine, which, as has been learned from other sources, does obtain
among them.
(Tchuktchees of Siberia.) "It would be impossible, with decency,
to describe their habits, or explain how their very efforts towards
cleanliness make them all the more disgusting. ... It requires con-
siderable habitude or terrible experience in the open air to find any
degree of comfort in such abodes. The Augean stables or the stump-
tail cow-sheds appear like Paradise in comparison." — ("Ice-Pack and
Tundra," Gilder, New York, 1883, p. 105.)
PREPARATION OF SAL AMMONIAC, PHOSPHORUS, SOLUTION OF INDIGO.
Diderot and D'Alembert say that the sal ammoniac of the ancients
was prepared with the urine of camels ; that phosphorus, as then
manufactured in England, was made with human urine, as was also
saltpetre. — (Encyclopaedia, Geneva, 1789, article "Urine.")
Sal ammoniac derives its name from having been first made in the
URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 195
vicinity of the temple of Jupiter Amnion ; it would be of consequence
to us to know whether or not the priests of that temple had adminis-
tered urine in disease before they learned how to extract from it the
medicinal salt which has corne down to our own times.
Schurig devotes a chapter to the medicinal preparations made from
human ordure. In every case the ordure had to be that of a youth
from twenty-five to thirty years old. This manner of preparing chem-
icals from the human excreta, including phosphorus from urine, was
carried to such a pitch that some philosophers believed the philoso-
pher's stone was to be found by mixing the salts obtained from human
urine with those obtained from human excrement. — (See " Chylo-
logia," pp. 739-742.)
The method of obtaining sal ammoniac was not known to Pliny ; he
knew of gum ammoniac, which he says distilled from a tree, called
metopia, growing in the sands near the Temple of Jupiter Amnion, in
Ethiopia. — (Nat. Hist. lib. 12, cap. 22.)
" A notion has prevailed that sal ammoniac was made of the sand
on which camels had staled, and that a great number going to the
temple of Jupiter Ammon gave occasion for the name of ammoniac,
corrupted to armoniac. Whether it ever could be made by taking up
the sand and preparing it with fire, as they do the dung at present,
those who are best acquainted with the nature of these things will be
best able to judge. I was informed that it was made of the soot
which is caused by burning the dung of cows and other animals. The
hotter it is the better it produces ; and for that reason the dung of
pigeons is the best ; that of camels is also much esteemed." (Here
follows a description of the method of distilling this soot.) — (Pocock's
"Travels in Egypt," in Pinkerton, vol. xv. p. 381.)
" PurifitSe, l'Urine sert dans les arts pour degraisser les laines, dis-
soudre l'indigo, prepare le sel ammoniac." — (Personal letter from
Prof. Frank Rede Fowke, South Kensington Museum, June 18,
1888.)
MANURE EMPLOYED AS FUEL.
The employment of manures as fuel for firing pottery among
Moquis, Zunis, and other Pueblos, and for general heating in Thibet,
has been pointed out by the author in a former work. ("Snake
Dance of the Moquis," London, 1884.) It was used for the same
purpose in Africa, according to Mungo Park. (" Travels," etc., p. 119.)
The dung of the buffalo served the same purpose in the domestic
196 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
economy of the Plains Indians. Camel dmig is the fuel of the
Bedouins ; that of men and animals alike was saved and dried by
the Syrians, Arabiaus, Egyptians, and people of West of England for
fuel. Egyptians heated their lime-kilns with it. — (McClintock and
Strong, "Dung." See, also, Kitto's Biblical EueyclopEedia, article
"Dung.")
Pocock says of camel dung : " In order to make fuel of it, they mix
it, if I mistake not, with chopped straw, and, I think, sometimes with
earth, and make it into cakes and dry it; and it is burnt by the
common people in Egypt ; for the wood they burn at Cairo is very
dear, as it is brought from Asia Minor." — (Pocock, in Pinkerton,
vol. xv. p. 381.)
Bruce does not allude to any of the filthy customs which are de-
tailed by Schweiufurth, Sir Samuel Baker, and others ; he does say that
the Nuba of the villages called Daher, at the head of the White Nile,
Abyssinia, " never eat their meat raw as in Abyssinia ; but with the
stalk of the dura or millet and the dung of camels they make ovens
under ground, in which they roast their hogs whole, in a very cleanly
and not disagreeable manner." — ("Nile," Dublin, 1791, vol. v. p.
172.)
"Argol, the dried dung of camels, is the common fuel of Mongo-
lia."— ("Among the Mongols," Rev. James Gilmour, London, 18S3,
pp. 84, 146, 191, 296.)
The dung of camels is the fuel of the Kirghis. — (See " Oriental
and Western Siberia," T. W. Atkinson, New York, 1865, pp. 218,
221.)
See also "From Paris to Pekin," Meignan, London, 1S85, pp. 186,
306, 310, 333; Burton's edition of the "Arabian Nights," vol. iii.
p. 51 ; Father Gerbillon's Account of Tartary, in Du Halde, vol. iv.
p. 151.)
" Asses' dung used for fuel and other purposes, such as making Joss
sticks." — (Burton's edition of the "Arabian Nights," vol. ii. p. 149,
footnote.)
Cow-dung fuel and sheep-dung fuel alluded to by Hue, as used in
Thibet. — (See also Manning, Bogle, and Delia Penna, in Markham's
"Thibet," London, 1879, p. 70.)
Friar William de Rubruquis, the Minorite, sent as ambassador to
the Grand Khan of Tartary, by Saint Louis, King of France, in 1253,
speaks of eating " Unleavened bread baked in Oxe-Dung or Horse-
dung " (in Purchas, vol. i. p. 34). Cow dung used for the same pur-
URIXE AND ORDURE IX INDUSTRIES. 197
pose in Thibet. — (See Turner's "Embassy to Thibet," London, 1806,
p. 202.)
" Cowe-dung fewell," in Malta, mentioned by Master George Sandys,
a.d. 1610 (in Purchas, vol. ii. 916). — ("Stercus bouinum," in Egypt,
idem, vol. ii. p. 898.)
Yak manure used as fuel in Eastern Thibet, according to W. W.
Eockhill in "Border Laud of China," in "Century " Magazine, New
York, 1890.
Cow manure employed for the same purpose by the people of Tur-
key in Asia, in the valley of the Tigris, near Mosul, according to George
Smith. — ("Assyrian Discoveries," New York, 1876, p. 122.)
The "whole fuel"' of the Mongols is "cow or horse dung dried in
the sun." — (Father Gerbillou's Account of Tartary, in Du Halde,
vol. iv. pp. 234, 270.)
The use of cow-dung as fuel in certain parts of the world would seem
not to he entirely divested of the religious idea.
" Firewood at Seringapatam is a dear article, and the fuel most com-
monly used is cow-dung made up into cakes. This, indeed, is much
used in every part of India, especially by men of rank ; as, from the
veneration paid the cow, it is considered as by far the most pure sub-
stance that can be employed. Every herd of cattle, when at pasture,
is attended by women, and these often of high caste, who with their
hands gather up the dung and carry it home in baskets.
" They then form it into cakes, about half an inch thick, and nine
inches in diameter, and stick them on the walls to dry. So different
indeed are Hindu notions of cleanliness from ours that the walls of
their best houses are frequently bedaubed with these cakes ; and every
morning numerous females, from all parts of the neighborhood, bring
for sale into Seringapatam baskets of this fuel. Many females who
carry large baskets of cow-dung on their heads are well-dressed and
elegantly formed girls." — ("A Journey through Mysore," Buchanan,
Pinkerton, vol. viii. p. 612.)
SMUDGES.
Dried ordure is generally used for smudges, to drive away insects ;
the Indians of the Great Plains beyond the Missouri burned the
" chips " of the buffalo with this object.
The natives of the White Nile " make tumuli of dung which are
constantly on fire, fresh fuel being added constantly, to drive away the
mosquitoes." — ("The Albert Nyanza," Baker, p. 53.)
198 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" When they burn it (the dung of a camel) the smoke which pro-
ceeds from it destroys Gnats and all kinds of vermin." — (Chinese
recipes given in Du Halde's " History of China," vol. iv. p. 34.)
Schweinfurth describes the Shillooks of the west bank of the Nile as
" burning heaps of cow-dung to keep off the flies." — (" Heart of
Africa," vol. i. p. 16. See also "Central Africa," Chaille Long, New
York, 1877, p. 215.)
Such smudges were employed by the Arabians to kill bed-bugs.
" Effugatione Cimicum " effected by a "suffumigium" of "stercore
vaccino." — (" Avicenua," vol. ii. p. 214, a 47.)
Rev. James Gilmour describes a mode of extinguishing a burning
tent, observed among the Mongols, the counterpart of which is to be
found in " Gulliver's Travels." — (See " Among the Mongols," p. 23.)
Lucius Cataline, accused by Marcus Cicero of raising a flame in the
city of Rome, "I believe it," said he, "and, if I cannot extinguish it
with water, I will with urine." — (Hariugton, "Ajax," cap. "Ulysses
upon Ajax," p. 22.)
HUMAN AND ANIMAL EXCRETA TO PROMOTE THE GROWTH OP THE HAIR
AND ERADICATE DANDRUFF.
For shampooing the hair, urine was the favorite medium among the
Eskimo.1
Sahagun, gives in detail the formula of the preparation applied by
the Mexicans for the eradication of dandruff: "Cut the hair close to
the root, wash head well with urine, and afterward take amole (soap-
weed) and coixochitl leaves — the amole is the wormwood of this
country [in this Sahagun is mistaken] — and then the kernels of
aguacate ground up and mixed with the ashes already spoken of
(wood ashes from the fire-place), and then rub on black mud with a
quantity of the bark mentioned (rnescpiite)." 2
A similar method of dressing the hair, but without urine, prevails
among the Indians along the Rio Colorado and in Sonora, Mexico.
1 See Graah, " Greenland," London, 1837, p. Ill, and Hans Egede Saabye,
"Greenland," London, 1818, p. 256.
2 Contra la easpa sera necesario eortar muy a raiz los cabellos y lavarse la cabeza
con orinas y despues touiar las hojas de eiertas yerbas que en indio se llaman coio-
xochitl y amolli 6 iztahuatl que es el agenjo de esta tierra, y con el cuesco del agua-
cate raolido y mezclado con el cisco que esta dicho arriba ; y sobre esto se ha de
poner, el barro negro que esta referido, con cantidad de la corteza de lo dicho. —
(Sahagun, iu Kingsborough, vol. vii. p. 294. )
URINE AND ORDURE IN INDUSTRIES. 199
First, an application is made of a mixture of river mud ("blue mud,"
as it is called in Arizona) and pounded mesquite bark. After three
days this is removed, and the hair thoroughly washed with water in
which the saponaceous roots of the amole have been steeped. The
hair is dyed a rich blue-black, and remains soft, smooth, and glossy.
Dove-dung was also applied externally in the treatment of baldness.
— (Hippocrates, Kuhn, lib. 2, p. 854.)
The urine of the foal of an ass was supposed to thicken the hair.
(See Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap 11.) Camel's dung, reduced to ashes and
mixed with oil, was said to curl and frizzle the hair (idem, lib. xxviii.
cap. 8). The natives of the Nile above Khartoum have "their hair
stained red by a plaster of ashes and cow's urine." — (" The Albert
Nyanza," Sir Samuel Baker, p. 39.)
And the Shillooks of the west bank make " repeated applications of
clay, gum, or dung," to their hair. — ("Heart of Africa," Schwein-
furth, vol. i. p. 17 ; idem, the Xueirs, p. 32.)
L'aqua ex stercore distillata fait pousser les cheveux " (Bib. Scat.
p. 29), while Schurig (Chylologia, p. 760) says that the same prepara-
tion " promotes the growth of the hair and prevents its falling out."
Schurig further says that swallow-dung was of conceded efficacy
as a hair-dye, and was applied frequently as an oiutment. (Idem,
p. 817.) He recommends the use of mouse-dung for scald head and
dandruff, and even to excite the growth of the beard. (Idem, p. 823
et seq.) Ammonia, or, more properly speaking, "the ashes of harts-
horn, burnt and applied with wine," was known to Pliny as a remedy
for dandruff. (Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 11.) Possibly the use of harts-
horn for this purpose sprang from the prior use of urine, from which
hartshorn or ammonia was gradually manufactured.
For loss of hair, the dung of pigeons, cats, rats, mice, geese, swal-
lows, rabbits, or goats, or human urine, applied externally, were highly
recommended by Paullini, in his " Dreck Apothek," Frankfort, 1696.
Cat-dung was highly recommended by Sextus Placitus.
AS A MEANS OF WASHING VESSELS.
Among the Shillooks, "ashes, dung, and the urine of cows are the
indispensable requisites of the toilet. The item last named affects the
nose of the stranger rather unpleasantly when he makes use of any of
their milk vessels, as, according to a regular African habit, they are
washed with it, probably to compensate for a lack of salt." — ("Heart
of Africa," Schweinfurth, vol. i. p. 16.)
200 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" The Obbo natives are similar to the Bari in some of their habits.
I have had great difficulty in breaking my cow-keeper of his disgusting
custom of washing the milk-bowl with cow's urine, and even mixing
some with the milk. He declares that unless he washes his hands
with such water before milking the cow will lose her milk. This filthy
custom is unaccountable." — ("The Albert Nyanza," Baker, p. 240.)
A personal letter from Chief Engineer Melville, U. S. Navy, states
that the natives of Eastern Siberia use urine " for cleansing their
culinary materials."
By the tribes on Lake Albert Nyanza, the " butter was invariably
packed in a plantain leaf, but frequently the package was plastered
with cow-dung and clay." ("The Albert Nyanza," p. 363. See, also,
extract from Paullini, on p. 316, and from Schurig, p. 121, of this
volume.) There certainly seems to be a trace of superstition in the
first case mentioned by Sir Samuel Baker.
In the County Cork, Ireland, rusty tin dishes are scoured with cow
manure ; the manure is blessed, and so will benefit the dishes and
bring good luck. It is a not infrequent custom to bury "keelars" and
other dishes for holding milk under a manure-heap during the winter
and early spring (when cows are apt to he dry, and the milk-dishes
empty), to protect them (the dishes) from persons evilly disposed, who
might cast a spell on them, and so bewitch either the cows or the milk.
Such an evil-eyed person could not harm a dish unless empty.
" The cow is believed to be a blessed animal, and hence the manure
is sacred." (Personal letter from Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge,
Mass.) This belief of the Celtic peasantry apparently connects itself
with the religious veneration in which the cow is held by the people
of India.
FILTHY HABITS IN COOKING.
The Eskimo relate stories of a people who preceded them in the
Folar regions called the Tornit. Of these predecessors, they say,
" Their way of preparing meat was disgusting, since they let it become
putrid, and placed it between the thigh and the belly to warm it." —
("The Central Eskimo," Dr. Franz Boas, in Sixth Annual Report,
Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C, 1888, p. 635.)
This recalls the similar method of the Tartars, who used to seat
themselves on their horses with their meat under them.
URINE W CEREMONIAL ABLUTIONS. 201
XXVII.
URINE IN CEREMONIAL ABLUTIONS.
\\f HERE urine is applied in bodily ablutions, the object sought is
* undoubtedly the procuring of ammonia by oxidation, and in no
case of that kind is it sought to ascribe an association of religious
ideas. But where the ablutions are attended with ceremonial obser-
vances, are incorporated in a ritual, or take place in chambers reserved
for sacred purposes, it is uot unfair to suggest that everything made
use of, including the urine, has a sacred or a semi-sacred significance.
No difficulty is experienced in assigning to their proper categories
the urinal ablutions of the Eskimo of Greenland (Haus Egede Saabye,
p. 256) ; of the Alaskans (Sabytschew, in Phillips, vol. vi.) ; of the
Indians of the northwest coast of America (Whymper's " Alaska,"
London, 1868, p. 142 ; H. H. Bancroft, "Nat. Races," vol. i. p. 83) ;
of the Indians of Cape Flattery (Swan, in " Smithsonian Coutrib.") ;
of the people of Iceland (see below) ; of Siberia (see below) ; and of
the savages of Lower California.
Pericuis of Lower California. " Mothers, to protect them against
the weather, cover the entire bodies of their children with a varnish
of coal and urine." — (Bancroft, vol. i. p. 559.)
Clavigero not only tells all that Baucroft does, but he adds that the
women of California washed their own faces in urine. — (" Hist, de
Baja California," Mexico, 1852, p. 28; see, also, Orozco y Berra and
Baegert.)
'• People of Iceland are reported to wash their faces and hands in
pisse." (Hakluyt, "Voyages," vol. i. p. 664.) This report was, how-
ever, indiguantly denied of all but the common people by Arugriauus
Jonas, an Icelandic writer.
The inhabitants of Ounalashka " wash themselves first with their
own urine, and afterwards with water." — ("Russian Discoveries,"
William Coxe, London, 1803, quoting Solovoofs "Voyage," 1764,
p. 226.)
202 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Iu the same volume is to be found the statement that in Alaska and
the Fox Islands, the people " washed themselves, according to custom,
first with urine, and then with water." — (p. 225, quoting " Voyage of
Captain Krenitzin," 1768.)
When a child gets very dirty " with soot and grease," a Vancouver
squaw uses " stale urine " to cleanse it. " This species of alkali as a
substitute for soap is the general accompaniment of the morning
toilet of both sexes, male and female. During winter they periodically
scrub themselves with sand and urine." — (J. G. Swan, " Indians of
Cape Flattery, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," No. 220,
P. 19.)
Among the Tchuktchees, urine " is a useful article in their house-
hold economy, being preserved in a special vessel, and employed as a
.snap or lye for cleansing bodies or clothing." — (" In the Lena Delta,"
Melville, p. 318.)
" But they also wash themselves, as well as their clothes, with it ;
and even in the hot bath, of which men and women are alike fond,
because they love to perspire, it is with this fluid they sometimes make
their ablutions." — (Lisiansky, "Voyage round the World," London,
1811, p. 214.)
Used as " a substitute for soap-lees, according to Langsdorff." —
("Voyages," London, 1814, vol. ii. p. 47.)
" By night, the Master of the house, with all his family, his wife
and children, lye in one room. . . . All of them make water in one
chamber-pot, with which, in the morning, they wash their face, mouth,
teeth, and hands. They allege many reasons thereof, to wit, that it
makes a faire face, maintaineth the strength, confirmeth the sinewes in
the hands, and preserveth the teeth from putrefaction." — (" Dittmar
Bleekens," in Purchas, vol. i. p. 647.)
After describing the double tent of skins used by the Tchuktchees,
Mr. W. H. Gilder, author of " Schwatka's Search," says all food is
served in the "yoronger," or inner tent, in which men and women sit,
in a state of nudity, wearing only a small loin-cloth of seal-skin.
After finishing the meal, "a small, shallow pail or pan of wood is
passed to any one who feels so inclined, to furnish the warm urine with
which the board and knife are washed by the housewife. It is a matter
of indifference who furnishes the fluid, whether the men, women, or
children ; and I have myself frequently supplied the landlady with the
dish-water. In nearly every tent there is kept from the summer season
a small supply of dried grass. A little bunch of this is dipped iu the
URINE IN CEREMONIAL ABLUTIONS. 203
warm urine and serves as a dish-rag and a Dapkin. These people are
generally kind and hospitable, and were very attentive to my wants as
a stranger, and regarded by them as more helpless than a native.
The women would, therefore, often turn to me after washing the board
and knife, and wash my fingers and wipe the grease fro.rn my moutli
with the moistened grass. Any of the men or women in the tent
who desired it would also ask for the wet grass, and use it in the same
way.
" It was not done as a ceremony, but merely as a matter of course
or of necessity.
" I do not think they would use urine for such purposes if they
could get all the water, and especially the warm water, they needed.
But all the water they have in winter is obtained by melting snow or
ice over an oil lamp, — a very slow process ; and the supply is there-
fore very limited, being scarcely more than is required for drinking
purposes, or to boil such fresh meat as they may have.
" The urine, being warm and containing a small quantity of am-
monia, is particularly well adapted for removing grease from the board
and utensils, which would otherwise soon become foul, and to their
taste much more disagreeable.
"The bottom of the 'yoronger' is generally carpeted with tanned
seal-skins, and they too are frequently washed with the same fluid.
The consequence is that there is ever a mingled odor of ammonia and
rotten walrus-meat pervading a well-supplied and thrifty Tchouktchi
dwelling." — (Personal letter to Captain Bourke, dated Xew York,
October 15, 1889.)
" Vice- Admiral of the Narrow Seas." " A drunken man that pisses
under the table into his companion's shoes." — (Grose, "Dictionary of
Buckish Slang," London, 1811, article as above.)
This use of urine as a tooth-wash has had a very extensive diffusion ;
it is still to be found in many parts of Europe and America, of boasted
enlightenment. The Celtiberii of Spain, " although they boasted of
cleanliness both in their nourishment and in their dress, it was not
unusual for them to wash their teeth and bodies in urine, — a custom
which they considered favorable to health." — (Maltebrun, "Univ.
Geog.," vol v. book 137, p. 357, article " Spain.")
From Strabo we learn that the Iberians " do not attend to ease or
luxury, unless any one considers it can add to the happiness of their
lives to wash themselves and their wives in stale urine kept in tanks,
and to rinse their teeth with it, which they say is the custom both
204 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
with the Cantabrians and their neighbors." (Strabo, " Geography,"
Bohn, lib. iii. cap. 4, par. 16, Loudon, 1854. In a footnote it is
stated that " Apuleius, Catullus, and Diodorus Siculus all speak of
this singular custom.") The same practice is alluded to by Percy, and
also by the " Encyclopedic and Dictiounaire Raisonne des Sciences,"
Neufehatel, 1745, vol. xvii. p. 499 ; and the practice is said to obtain
among the modern Spaniards as well. " Les Espagnols font grand
usage de l'urine pour se nettoyer les dents. Les anciens Celtiberiens
faisoieut la meiue chose." — (Received from Prof. Frank Rede Fowke,
London, June 18, 1888.)
Bien que soigneux de leurs personnes et propre dans leur mauiere
de vivre, les Celtiberes se lavent tout le corps d'urine, s'en frottant
nieme les dents, estimaut cela un bon moyen pour entretenir la sante
du corps." — (Diodore, v. 33.)
" Nunc Celtiber, in Celtiberia terra
Quod quisque minxit, hoc solet sibi mane
Dentem atque russam defricare ginginam."
(Catullus, "Epigrams," 39.)
The manners of the Celtiberians, as described by Strabo and others,
have come down through many generations to their descendants in all
parts of the world ; all that he related of the use of human urine as a
mouth-wash, as a means of ablution, and as a dentifrice, was trans-
planted to the shores of America by the Spanish colonists ; and even
in the present generation, according to Gen. S. V. Benet, U. S. Army,
traces of such customs were to be found among some of the settlers in
Florida.
The same custom has been observed among the natives along the
Upper Nile. " The Obbo natives wash out their mouths with their
own urine. This habit may have originated in the total absence of
salt in their country." — (" The Albert Nyanza," Sir Samuel Baker,
p. 240.)
In England likewise there was a former employment of the same
fluid as a dentifrice.
" ' Nettoyer ses dents avec de l'urine, mode espagnole,' dit Erasme."
— ("Les Primitifs," Elie Reclus, Paris, 1885, quoting Erasmus, " De
Civilitate.")
Urine was employed as a tooth-wash, alone or mixed with orris
powder. " Farina orobi (bitter vetch) permisceatur cum urina." —
("Medicus Microcosmus," Uanielus Beckherius, pp. 62-64.)
URINE IN CEREMONIAL ABLUTIONS. 205
A paragraph in Paullini's " Dreck Apothek," p. 74, would show
that in Germany the same usages were not unknown. As a dentifrice
he recommends urine as a wash ; or a powder made of pulverized gravel
stone, mixed with urine.
Ivan Petroff states that the peasants of Portugal still wash their
clothes in urine. — (Ivan Petroff, in " Trans. American Anthropologi-
cal Society," 1882, vol. i.)
Urine is used on whaling vessels, when stale, for washing flannel
shirts, which are then thrown overhoard and towed after the ship. —
( Dr. J. H. Porter.)
Dr. V. T. McGillicuddy, of Rapid City, Dakota, furnishes the infor-
mation that Irish, German, and Scandinavian washerwomen who have
immigrated to the United States persist in adding human urine to the
water to be used for cleansing blankets.
" I have observed somewhere that the Basks and some Hindus
clean their mouths with urine, but I do not remember the book." —
(Dr. Alfred Gatchett, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C.)
Dr. Carl Lumholtz, of Christiania, Norway, states that he had seen
the savages of Herbert River, Australia, in 18° south latitude, with
whom he lived for some months, use their own urine to clean their
hands after they had been gathering wild honey.
The statement concerning the Celtibcrians may also be found in
Clavigero. — (" Hist, de Baja California," p. 28, quoting Diodorus
Siculus.)
Diderot and D'Alembert assert unequivocally that in the latter
years of the last century the people of the Spanish Peninsula still used
urine as a dentifrice. — (" Les Espaguols," etc., reading as above given
from "Diet. Raisonne"." See Encyclopedic, Geneva, 1789, article
" Urine.")
206 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXVIII.
URINE IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES.
"OUT in the examples adduced from Whymper concerning the people
of the village of Unlacheet, on Norton Sound, " the dancers of
the Malemutes of Norton Sound bathed themselves in urine." (Whym-
per's "Alaska," London, 1868, pp. 142, 152.) Although, on another
page, Whymper says that this was for want of soap, doubt may, with
some reason, be entertained. Bathing is a frequent accompaniment,
an integral part of the religious ceremonial among all the Indians of
America, and no doubt among the Inuit or Eskimo as well ; when this
is performed by dancers, there is further reason to examine carefully
for a religious complication, and especially if these dances be celebrated
in sacred places, as PetrofF relates they are.
" They never bathe or wash their bodies, but on certain occasions
the men light a fire in the kashima, strip themselves, and dance and
jump around until in a profuse perspiration. They then apply urine to
their oily bodies and rub themselves until a lather appears, after which
they plunge into the river." — (Ivan Petroff in "Transactions Ameri-
can Anthropological Society," vol. i. 1882.)
" In each village of the Kuskutchewak (of Alaska) there is a public
building named the kashim, in which councils are held and festivals
kept, and which must be large enough to contain all the grown men
of the village. It has raised platforms around the walls, and a place
in the centre for a fire, with an aperture in the roof for the admis-
sion of light." — (Richardson, " Arctic Searching Expedition," London,
1851, p. 3G5.)
Those kashima are identical with the estufas of Zuftis, Moquis, and
Rio Grande Pueblos. Whymper himself describes them thus : " These
buildings may be regarded as the natives' town hall ; orations are made,
festivals and feasts are held in them."
No room is left for doubt after reading the fuller description of these
kashima, contained in Bancroft. He says the Eskimo dance in them,
URINE IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES. 207
"often in puris naturalibus" and make "burlesque imitations of bird?
and beasts." Dog or wolf tails hang to the rear of their garments. A
sacred feast of fish and berries accompanies these dances, wherein the
actors " elevate the provisions successively to the four cardinal points,
and once to the skies above, when all partake of the feast." — (Ban-
croft, "Native Races," vol. i. p. 78.)
There is a description of one of these dances by an American, Mr.
W. H. Gilder, an eyewitness. " The kashine (sic) is a sort of town
hall for the male members of the tribe. ... It is built almost en-
tirely under ground, and with a roof deeply covered with earth. It is
lighted through a skylight in the roof, and entered by a passage-way
and an opening which can only be passed bj' crawling on hands and
knees. ... In the centre of the room is a deep pit, where in winter a
fire is built to heat the building, after which it is closed, and the
heat retained for au entire day. Iu this building the men live almost
all the time. Here they sleep and eat, and they seldom rest in the
bosom of their families." He further says that there was "a shelf
which extends all round the room against the wall. . . . One young
man prepared himself for the dance by stripping off all his clothing,
except his trousers, and putting on a pair of reindeer mittens. . . .
The dance had more of the character of Indian performances than any
I had ever previously seen among the Esquimaux." — (" Ice-Pack and
Tundra," pp. 56-58.)
The following information received from Victor Namoff, a Eadiak of
mixed blood, relates to a ceremonial dance which he observed among the
Aiga-lukamut Eskimo of the southern coast of Alaska. The informant,
as his father had been before him, had for a number of years been em-
ployed by the Russians to visit the various tribes on the mainland to
conduct trade for the collection of furs and peltries. Besides being
perfectly familiar with the English and Russian languages, he had ac-
quired considerable familiarity with quite a number of native dialects,
and was thus enabled to mingle with the various peoples among whom
much of his time was spent. The ceremony was conducted in a large
partly underground chamber, of oblong shape, having a continuous
platform or shelf, constructed so as to be used either as seats or for
sleeping. The only light obtained was from native oil lamps. The
participants, numbering about ten dozen, were entirely naked, and
after being seated a short time several natives, detailed as musicians,
began to sing. Then one of the natives arose, and performed the dis-
gusting operation of urinating over the back and shoulders of the per-
208 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
son seated next him, after which he jumped down upon the ground,
and began to dance, keeping time with the music. The one who had
been subjected to the operation just mentioned, then subjected his
nearest neighbor to a similar douche, and he in turn the next in
order, and so on until the last person on the bench had been similarly
dealt with, he iu turn being obliged to accommodate the initiator of
the movement, who ceases dancing for that purpose. In the mean-
time all those who have relieved themselves step down and join in the
dance, which is furious and violent, inducing great perspiration and an
intolerable stench. No additional information was given further than
that the structure may have been used in this instance as a sudatory,
the urine and violent movements being deemed sufficient to supply the
necessary amount of moisture and heat to supply the participants with
a sweat-bath." — (Personal letter from Dr. W. J. Hoffman, Bureau of
Ethnology, Washington, D. C, June 16, 1890.)
Elliott describes the "Orgies" in the "Kashgas" as he styles them.
" The fire is usually drawn from the hot stones on the hearth. ... A
kantog of chamber-lye poured over them, which, rising in dense clouds
of vapor, gives notice by its presence and its horrible ammoniacal odor
to the delighted inmates that the bath is on. The kashga is heated to
suffocation ; it is full of smoke ; and the outside men run in from their
huts with wisps of dry grass for towels and bunches of alder twigs to
flog their naked bodies.
"They throw off their garments; they shout and dance and whip
themselves into profuse perspiration as they caper in the hot vapor.
More of their disgusting substitute for soap is rubbed on, and produces
a lather, which they rub off with cold water. . . . This is the most en-
joyable occasion of an Indian's existence, as he solemnly affirms.
Nothing else affords a tithe of the infinite pleasure which this orgy
gives him. To us, however, there is nothing about him so offensive as
that stench which such a performance arouses." — (Henry W. Elliott,
" Our Arctic Province," New York, 1887, p. 387.)
" Quoique generalement malpropres, ces gens ont, comme les autres
Inoits et la plupart des Indiens, la passion des bains de vapeur, pour
lesquels le kachim a son installation toujours pr§t.
" Avec 1'urine qu'ils recueillent precieusement pour leurs operations
de tannage, ils se frottent le corps ; Falcali, se melangeant avec les
transpirations et les huiles dont le corps est impregne, nettoie la peau
comme le ferait du savon ; l'odeur acre de cette liqueur putrifiee parait
leur etre agreable, mais elle saisit a la gorge les etrangers qui reculent
URINE IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES. 209
suffoque's, et out grand'peine a s'y faire. Horreur! honeur! oui, pour
ceux qui ont un pain de savou sur leur table a toilette ; mais pour
ceux qui ne possedeut pas ce detersifl" — ("Les Primitifs," Reclus,
p. 71, " Les Inoits Occideutaux.")
"Nul s'etonuera que les Ouhabites et les Ougagos de l'Afrique orieu-
tale en fassent toujours autaut. Mais on a ses preferences. Ainsi
Arabes et Bedouines recherchent Purine des chamelles. Les Baniaues
de Momba se lavent la figure avec de l'Urine de vache, parceque,
disent-ils, la vache est leur mere. Cette derniere substance est aussi
employee par les Silesiennes contre les taches de rousseur. Les Chow-
seures du Caucase la trouvent excellente pour entretenir la sante et
developper la luxuriance de la chevelure. A cette fin, ils receuillent
soigneusement le purin des etables, mais le liquide encore impregne de
clialeur vitale passe pour le plus energique. Les trayeuses flattent la
bete, lui sifflent un air, chatouillent certaine organe et au moment
precis, avancent le crane pour recevoir le flot qui s'epanche ; la mere
industrieuse fait inonder la tete de son nourrison en nieme temps que
la sienne." — (Idem, p. 73.)
The " Estufa " of the Pueblos was no doubt, in the earlier ages of the
tribal life, a communal dwelling similar to the "yourts" of the Siberi-
ans, like which it had but one large opening in the roof, for the en-
trance of members of the family, or clan, and the egress of smoke. An
examination of the myths and folk-lore of Siberia might reveal to us
the birth and the meaning of the visits of our good old Christmas
friend, Santa Claus, who certainly never sprang from European soil. A
god, loaded with gifts for good little children, could descend the ladders
placed in the chimneys of "yourts" aud "estufas," but such a feat
would be an impossibility in the widest chimneys ever constructed in
Germany or England for private houses.
The habitations of the natives of Ounalashka, according to Langs-
dorff, are made with the entrances through the roofs, precisely like
those of the people of Kamtchatka. — (" Voyages," vol. ii. p. 32.)
The " Estufa " model was perpetuated in the Temples of India,
exactly as the Imperial market-places of Rome supplied the type of
the "Basilica" of the Christian Church.
An article in " Frazer's Magazine," signed F. P. C, gives the dimen-
sions of the great Snake Temple of Nakhon-Vat in Cambodia : " Six
hundred feet square at the base, . . . rises in the centre to the height
of one hundred and eighty feet, . . . probably the grandest temple in
the world. ... In the inner court of this temple are ' tanks ' in which
14
210 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
the living serpents dwelt and were adored. . . . The difference between
these ' tanks ' and the ' Public Estufas ' is simply this : the latter are
partially or almost completely roofed."
Some time after reaching the conclusion just expressed and much
loss of study in a fruitless examination of Encyclopaedias, which did
not contain so much as the name of the patron of childhood, the work
of Mr. George Kennan was perused in which the same views are antici-
pated by a number of years ; it is by no means the least important
fact in an extremely interesting volume.
" The houses, if houses they could be called, were about twenty feet
in height, rudely constructed of drift-wood which had been thrown up
by the sea, and could be compared in shape to nothing but hour-
glasses. They had no doors or windows of any kind, and could only
be entered by climbing up a pole on the outside, and slipping down
another pole through the chimney, — a mode of entrance whose practi-
cability depended entirely upon the activity and intensity of the fire
which burned underneath.
"The smoke and sparks, although sufficiently disagreeable, were
trifles of comparative insignificance. I remember being told, in early
infancy, that Santa Claus always came into a house through the chim-
ney ; and, although I accepted the statement with the unreason-
ing faith of childhood, I could never understand how that singular
feat of climbing down a chimney could be safely accomplished. . . . My
first entrance into a Korak 'yourt,' however, at Kamenoi, solved all
my childish difficulties, and proved the possibility of entering a house
in the eccentric way which Santa Claus is supposed to adopt." —
(George Kennan, "Tent Life in Siberia," 12th edition, New York,
1887, p. 222.)
Steller describes a Festival of the Kamtchatkans occurring at the
end of November, after the winter provisions are in ; in this, one party,
on the outside of the house, attempts to lower a birch branch down
through the chimney ; the party on the inside attempts to capture it.
— (Steller, " Kamtchatka," translated by Mr. Bunnemeyer.)
" Every time they make water, or other unclean exercise of nature,
they wash those parts, little regarding who stands by. Before prayer,
they wash both face and hands, sometimes the head and privities." —
(Blount, "Voy. into the Levant," in Pinkerton, vol. x. p. 2G1.)
" Among the Negroes of Guinea, when a wife is pregnant for the first
time, she must perform certain ' ceremonies,' among which is 'going
to the sea-shore to be washed.' She is followed by a great number of
TJKINE IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES. 211
boys and girls, who fling all manner of dung and filth at her in her way
to the sea, where she is ducked and made clean." — (Bosnian, " Guinea,"
in Piukerton, vol. xvi. p. 423.)
"In 1817, I was then twenty-six years old, once an old woman (in
Cherbourg) came to me with a washing-pan, and asked me to piss into
it, as the urine of a stout, healthy young man was required to wash
the bosoms of a young woman who was just delivered of a child." —
(Personal letter from Captain Henri Jouan, French Xavy, to Captain
Bourke, dated Cherbourg, France, July 29, 1888.)
In Scotland, the breasts of a young mother were washed with salt
and water to ensure a good flow of milk. The practice is alluded to in
the following couplet from "The Fortunate Shepherdess," by Alexander
Ross, 1778.
"Jean's paps wi' sa't and water washcn clean,
Reed that her milk get wrang, fen it was green."
(Quoted in Brand, "Pop. Ant." vol. ii. p. 80, art. "Christening
Customs.")
This practice seems closely allied to the one immediately preceding.
We shall have occasion to show that salt and water, holy water, and
other liquids superseded human urine in several localities, Scotland
among others.
" Being to wean one of their children, the father and mother lay him
on the ground, and whilst they do that which modesty will not permit
me to name, the father lifts him by the arm, and so holds him for
some time, hanging in the air, falsely believing that by these means he
will become more strong and robust." — (Father Merolla, "Voyage to
the Congo," in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 237, a. d. 1682.)
In the Bareshnun ceremony, the Parsee priest " has to undergo
certain ablutions wherein he has to apply to his body cow's urine, and
sand and clay, which seem to have been the common and cheapest dis-
infectant known to the ancient Iranians." — (Dr. J. W. Kingsley, Per-
sonal letter to Captain Bourke, apparently citing " The History of the
Parsees," by Dosabhai Framje Karaka.)
The Manicheans bathed in urine. — (Picart, "Coiitumes," etc.;
" Dissertation sur les Perses," p. 18.)
" Le lecteur le plus degoute s'cn occupe presque a son insu ; quand
il demande a son ami, Comment allez-vous ? s'il vous plait si ce n'est
la — ou se fait ce que nous disons? Dans an pays voisin on se salue
en disant, La matiere est-elle louable 1 Et en Angleterre, c'est la
212 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
meme pensee qu'on exprime lorsqu'on dit, en abordant quelqu'un,
How do you do? Comment faites-vous ? — (Bib. Scat. p. 21.)
"There is a place where whenever the King spits the greatest ladies
of his court put out their hands to receive it ; and another nation
where the most eminent persons about him stop to take up his ordure
in a linen cloth." — (Montaigne, Essays, " On Customs.")
" A few days after birth, or according to the fancy of the parents, an
'angekok,' who by relationship or long acquaintance with the family,
lias attained terms of great friendship, makes use of some vessel and
with the urine of the mother washes the infant, while all the gossips
around pour forth their good wishes for the little one to prove an active
man, if a boy, or, if a girl, the mother of plenty of children. The
ceremony, I believe, is never omitted, and is called Gogsinariva." —
("The Central Eskimo," Boas, p. 610, quoting G. F. Lyon, "Private
Journal of H. M. S. Hecla, during the recent Voyage of Discovery
under Captain Parry," London, 1824.)
The same custom is practised by the Eskimo of Cumberland Sound
(idem).
" Buffalo dung I have seen carefully arranged in (Crow) Indian
dance tepees, having apparently some connection with the ceremonies."
— (Personal letter from Dr. A. B. Holder, Memphis, Tenn., to Cap-
tain Bourke, Feb. 6, 1890.)
" In one of the sacred dances of the Cheyenues, there is to be seen an
altar surrounded by a semi-circle of buffalo chips. This dance or cere-
mony is celebrated for the purpose of getting an abundance of ponies."
— (See the description in Dodge's "Wild Indians," pp. 127, 128.)
The sacred pipes used in the Sun Dance of the Sioux are so placed
that the bowl rests upon a "buffalo chip." — ("The Sun Dance of
the Ogallalla Sioux." Alice Fletcher, in " Proceed. American Associ-
ation for the Advancement of Science," 1882.)
The drinking of the water in which anew-born babe had been bathed
is intimated in the myths of the Samoans. When the first baby was
born " Salevao provided water for washing the child, and made it Saor,
sacred to Moa. The rocks and the earth said they wished to get some
of that water to drink. Salevao replied that if they got a bamboo he
would send them a streamlet through it, and hence the origin of
springs." — ("Samoa," Turner, London, 1884, p. 10.)
Although it is not so stated in the text, yet from analogy with other
cosmogonies we may entertain a suspicion as to how the god provided
the water, — no doubt from his own person.
URINE IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES. 213
STERCORACEOUS CHAIR OF THE POPES.
" Stercoraire, Chaire (Hist, des Papes) ; c'est ainsi qu'on nommait a
Rome, au rapport de M. L'Enfaut, une chaire qui etoit autrefois devant
le portique de la basilique, sur laquelle on faisait asseoir le Pape le
jour de sa consecration. Le chceur de musiqne lui chautoit alors ces
paroles du Psaunie 113, selon l'Hebreu, et le 112, selou le Vulgate, v. 6,
et suiv. ' II tire de la poussiere celui qui est dans l'indigeuce et il
eleve le pauvre de sou avilissement pour le placer avec les princes de
son peuple ; ' c'etoit pour insinuer au Pape, dit cardinal Easpon, la
vertu de l'humilite, qui doit etre le compagne de sa grandeur. Cet usage
fut aboli par Leon X, qui u'etoit pas ne" pour ces sortes de minuties." —
(" Encyc. ou Diet. Raison. des Sciences," etc., Xeufchatel, 1765, tome
quinzieme, article as above.)
Consult Ducange also, " Stercoraria Sedes," wherein it is stated that
the use of this chair could be traced back to the tenth century.
" Stercoraria sedes, in qua creati pontifices ad frangendos elatos
spiritus considerent, unde dicta." — (Baronius, "Annales," Lucca,
1758.)
Read also the remarks upon the subject of Ducking Stools, from
which this seems to have been derived, under " Ordeals and Punish-
ments."
Father Le Jeune relates, among the ceremonies observed by the
Indians of Canada upon capturing a bear, that no women were allowed
to remain in the lodge with the carcass, and that special care was taken
to prevent dogs from licking the blood, gnawing the bones, or eating
the excrement. — (See " Relations," 1634, vol. i., Quebec, 1858.)
214 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXIX.
ORDURE IN SMOKING.
\ MONG all the observances of the every-day life of the American
■*■ aborigines, none is so distinctly complicated with the religious
idea as smoking ; therefore, should the use of excrement, human or
animal, be detected in this connection, full play should be given to the
suspicion that a hidden meaning attaches to the ceremony. This
would appear to be the view entertained by the indefatigable mission-
ary, De Smet, who records such a custom among the Flatheads and
Crows in 1846 : " To render the odor of the pacific incense agreeable to
their gods it is necessary that the tobacco and the herb (skwiltz), the
usual ingredients, should be mixed with a small quantity of buffalo
dung." »
The Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapaboes, and others of the plains tribes, to
whom the buffalo is a god, have the same or an almost similar custom.
The Hottentots, when in want of tobacco, " smoke the dung of the
two-homed rhinoceros or of elephants." — (Thurnberg's Account of
the Cape of Good Hope, quoted in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 141.)
The followers of the Grand Lama, as already noted, make use of his
dried excrements as snuff, and an analogous employment of the dried
dung of swine retained a place in the medical practice of Europe until
the beginning of the present century, and may, perhaps, still survive
in the Folk-medicine of isolated villages.
The people of Achaia say " that the smoke of dried cow dung, that
of the animal when grazing I mean, is remarkably good for phthisis,
inhaled through a reed." — (Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xxviii. cap. 67.)
Dung is also used in Central Africa. " A huge bowl is filled with
tobacco and clay and sometimes with a questionable mixture, the
fumes are inhaled until the smoker falls stupefied or deadly sick —
this effect alone being sought for." — (" Central Africa," Chaille Long,
p. 266.)
1 Father De Smet, "Oregon Missions," New York, 1847, p. 383.
ORDURE IN SMOKING. 215
" In Algeria, gazelle droppings are put in snuff and smoking tobacco ;
the Mongol Tartars mix the ashes of yak manure with their snuff." —
(Personal letter from \V. W. Rockhill.)
Mr. Rudyard Kipling shows in his " Plain Tales from the Hills "
("Miss Youghal's Sais") that the native population of India is accus-
tomed to use a mixture of one part of tobacco to three of cow-dung.
216 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXX.
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE.
" rpO multiply and replenish the earth," was the first command
given to man ; to love, and to desire to be loved in return, is
the strongest impulse of our nature, and therefore it need surprise no
student who sets about investigating the occult properties attributed
to the human and animal egestae to find them in very general use in
the composition of love-philters, as antidotes to such philters, as
aphrodisiacs, as antiphrodisiacs, and as aids to delivery.
ORDURE IN LOVE-PHILTERS.
Love-sick maidens in France stand accused of making as a philter a
cake into whose composition entered " nameless ingredients," which
confection, being eaten by the refractory lover, soon caused a revival
of his waning affections.1 This was considered to savor so strongly of
witchcraft that it was interdicted by councils.
The witches and wizards of the Apache tribe make a confection or
philter, one of the ingredients of which is generally human ordure, as
the author learned from some of them a few years since. The Nava-
joes, of same blood and language as the Apaches, employ the dung of
cows (as related in the "Snake Dance of the Moquis," p. 27.)
Frommann gives an instance of a woman who made love-philters
out of her own excrement. As late as Frommann's day, the use of
such philters was punishable with death. The remedies for love-
philters were composed of human skull, coral, verbena flowers,
secundines, or after-birth, and a copious flow of urine. He says that
Paracelsus taught that when one person ate or drank anything given
1 " Le malefice amoureux ou le philtre " is defined as follows : " Telle est la pra-
tique de certaines femmes et de certaines filles, qui, pour obliger leurs galans . . .
de les aimer comme auparavaut . . . les font manger du gateau oil elles ont mis
des ordures que je ne veux pas nommer." — (Jean Baptiste Thiers, "Traite des
Superstitions," Paris, 1741, p. 150.)
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 217
off by the skin of another, he would fall desperately in love with that
other. " Quod illi, qui ederunt aut biberunt aliquid a scorte datum,
in ainorem alicujus coujiciantur et rapiantur." (Fronirnauu, "Trac-
tatus de Fascinatione," pp. 820, 82C, 970, quoting Paracelsus, Tract. 1,
de Morbis Amantium, cap. v.) He also cites Beckherius to the effect
that some philters were made of perspiration, menses, or semen. —
(Idem, quoting Beckherius, " Sapgyr. Microc," p. 89.)
John Leo, in Purchas (vol. ii. p. 850), speaks of "the roote Surnay
growing also upon the Western part of Mount Atlas. • . . The inhab-
itants of Mouut Atlas doe commonly report that many of those da-
mosels which keepe Cattell upon the said Mountaines, lose their Vir-
ginitie by no other occasion than by making water upon said Roote.
. . . This roote is said to be comfortable and preseruatiue unto the
priuie partes of man, and being drunk in an Electuary to stirre up
Venereal lust."
Reginald Scot mentions a " Wolves yard " among the ingredients in
a love-philter. — (" Discoverie of Witchecraft," London, 1651, p. 62.)
Human ordure was in constant use in the manufacture of these
philters, being administered both internally and externally. On this
point it may be proper to give the exact words of Schurig, who ex-
plains that it was sometimes put in porridge, and in other cases in the
shoes. In the last example, the man who made such use of the
excrement of his lady love was completely cured of his infatuation,
after wearing the defiled shoes one hour. " Contra Philtrae tarn in-
terne quam externe adhiberi solet amatse puellse stercus, ab exsiccato
enim atque in pulmento personee philtrat® exhibito amorem in mai-
imam antipathiam mutatam annotavit Eberhardus Gockelius. . . .
etiam Capitauei cujusdam meminit qui, postquam amasise stercus
no vis calceis imposuerat, posteaque iisdem per integram horam spatia-
tus fuerat ab illius atnore liberabatur." — (" Chylologia," p. 774.)
Leopard-dung was in repute as an aphrodisiac. — (Idem, p. 820.)
" The urine that has been voided by a bull immediately after cover-
ing . . . taken in drink," as an aphrodisiac; and "the groin well
rubbed with earth moistened with this urine." — (Pliny, Bohn, lib.
xxviii. cap. 80.)
" The wizard, witch, sorcerer, druggist, doctor, or medicine man
. . . played the part of an ochreous Cupid. Instead of smiles and
bright eyes, his dealings were with some nasty stuff put into beer, or
spread slyly upon bread. ... In the Shroft book of Egbert, Arch-
bishop of York, one of their methods is censured ; and it is so filthy
218 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
that I must leave it in the obscurity of the original old English." —
(" Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 45.)
An ointment of the gall of goats, incense, goat-dung, and nettle-
seeds was applied to the privy parts previous to copulation to increase
the amorousness of women. — (See "Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 351,
quoting Sextus Placitus.)
" Love-charms are made of ingredients too disgusting to mention,
and are given by the Mussulmans to women to persuade them to love
them." — (" Iudo-Mahomedan Folk-Lore," No. 3, H. C, p. 180, in
"Notes and Queries," 3d series, vol. xi., London, 1867.)
Varnbery has this obscure passage : " The good woman had the
happy idea to prescribe to the sick Khan five hundred doses of that
medicine said to have worked such beneficial effects upon the renowned
poet-monarch of ancient history. . . . The Khan of Khiva took from
fifty to sixty of these pills 'for impuissance.' " — ("Travels in Central
Asia," New York, 1865, p. 166.)
Besides these elements there were employed others equally dis-
gusting ; for example, the catamenial fluid, which seems to have
been in high repute for such purposes : " Quaedam audita? sunt jac-
tantes se sua excrementa propinasse, praecipue menstrua, quibus cogant
se amari."- — (" Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 45, quoting Caesalpinus,
" Dicmoiiuin Investigate, " fol. 154 b. Caesalpinus died in 1603.)
" He has taken the enchanted philter, and soiled my garment with
it." — ("Chaldean Magic," Lenormant, London, 1877, p. 61, quoting
an Incantation of the Chaldean sorcerers. It is, of course, a matter of
impossibility to tell of what this philter was composed.)
" They say that if a man takes a frog, and transfixes it with a reed
entering its body at the sexual parts, and coming out at the mouth,
and then dips the reed in the menstrual discharge of his wife, she will
be sure to conceive an aversion for all paramours." — ■ (Pliny, lib. xxxii.
cap. 13.)
" Sanguis menstruus, qui, a Paracelso vocatur Zenith Juvencularum ;
hie primus virgiuis impollutae multa in se habet arcana non semper
revelanda, Ut autem pauca adducam, extreme linteum a primo san-
guine menstruo madidum et exsiccatum, hauc denuo humectatum et
applicatum pedi podagraci, mirum quantum lenit dolores podagra.
Idem linteum, si applicetur parti Erysipelate affectae, incontineuti ery-
sipelas curat. In affectibus ab incantatiouibus et veneficiis oriuudis
multa praestat sanguis menstruus ; nam et ipse sanguis menstruus ad
veneficia adhibetur, et sunt mulieres, quae pro philtris utuntur san-
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 219
guine suo rueustruo." He instances such a philter, made with men-
strual and a hare's blood, which drove the recipient to mania and
suicide. It was further used to make people " impenetrable " to an
enemy's weapon, and to cure burning sores. (See Michael Etmuller,
" Opera Omnia," voL ii. p. 270, art. " Schrod. Dilucid. Zoijlogia.")
A medical student was frequently courted by his neighbor's daugh-
ter, but he disregarded her advances. At one time, however, he slept
with the brother of the girl in her father's house, and after that was
so infatuated that he would rise at midnight to kiss the jambs of the
door of her house. Some time afterwards, he sent his clothes to a
tailor to be mended, and, sewed up in his trousers, was found a little
bundle of hair from an unmentionable part of the girl's body, con-
taining the initials S. T. I. A. M., which were by some interpreted
to mean " Sathanas te trahat in aruorem mei." As soon as this little
bunch of hair was burned, the poor fellow had rest. — (Paullini, pp.
258, 259.)
Human semen was equally used for the very same purpose. There
is nothing to show whether male lovers used this ingredient, and
maidens the menstrual liquid, or both indiscriminately ; but it seems
plausible to believe that each sex adhered to its own excretion.
"Semen, f. Sperma, uon modo comperimus per se a nonnullis ad
veneris scilicet ligaturam maleficam dissolvendam, sed et Momiam
magneticam inde fieri quse amoris concilietur fervor. Quin et homun-
culum suum inde meditatur Paracelsus." — (Etmuller, " Opera Omnia,"
vol. ii. p. 266.)
Semen, Beckherius informs us, was used in breaking down " Liga-
tures" placed by witches or the devil, and in restoring impaired
virility. But it was sometimes employed in a manner savoring so
strongly of impiety that Beckherius preferred not to speak further. — ■
(" Medicus Microcosmus," p. 122.)
Flemming tells us that we should not pass over in silence the fact
that human seed has been employed by some persons as medicine.
They believed that its magnetic power could be used in philters, and
that by it a lover could feed the flame of his mistress's affections ;
hence from it was prepared what was known as " magnetic mummy,"
which, being given to a woman, threw her into an inextinguishable
frensy of love for the man or animal yielding it, — a suggestion of
auimal worship. Others credited it with a wonderful efficacy in re-
lieving inveterate epilepsy, or restoring virility impaired by incanta-
tion or witchcraft ; for which purpose it was used while still fresh,
220 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
before exposure to the air, in pottage, mixed with the powder of mace.
Flemming alludes to a horrible use of relics, good and bad, upon which
human semen had been ejaculated ; but this involved so much of the
grossest impiety that he declined to enter into full details. — ("De
Kernediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis," Samuel Augustus Flemming,
Erfurt, 1738, p. 22.)
The love-philter described in the preceding paragraph recalls a some-
what analogous practice among the Manicheans, whose eucharistic
bread was incorporated or sprinkled with human semen, possibly with
the idea that the bread of life should be sprinkled with the life-giving
excretion.1
The Albigenses, or Catharistes, their descendants, are alleged to
have degenerated into or to have preserved the same vile superstition.2
Understanding that these allegations proceed from hostile sources,
their insertion iu this category has been permitted only upon the theory
that as the Manichean ethics and ritual present resemblances to both
the Parsee and Buddhist religions (from which they may to some ex-
tent have originated), there is reason for supposing that ritualistic
ablutions, aspersions, and other practices analogous to those of the
great sect farther to the east, may have been transmitted to the younger
religion in Europe.
The following is taken from an episcopal letter of Burchard, Bishop
of Worms : —
" K'avez vous pas fait ce que certaines femmes ont coutume de faire ?
Elles se depouillent de leurs habits, oignent leur corps nu avec du
miel, etendent a terre un drap, sur lequel elles repandent du bled, se
roulent dessus a plusieurs reprises ; puis elles recueillent avec soin tous
I Qua occasione vel potius execrabilis superstitionis quadam necessitate coguntur
eleeti eorum velut eueharistiam conspersam cum semine humano sumere. — (Saint
Augustine, quoted by Bayle, "Philosophical Dictionary," Euglisli edition, London,
1737, article "Manicheans.")
II Les Catharistes qui etoient une espece choisis de JIanicheens, petrissoient le
pain Eucharistique avec la semence humaine. — (Thiers, "Superstitions," etc.,
Paris, 1741, vol. ii. lib. 2, chap. i. p. 216 ; and Picart, "Coutumes et Ceremonies,
etc., Amsterdam, 1729, vol. viii. p. 79.)
E. B. Tylor says that " about A. D. 700 John of Osun, patriarch of Armenia,
wrote a diatribe against the sect of Paulicians " (who were believed to be the de-
scendants of the Manicheans, and in turn to have transmitted their doctrines to the
Albigenses). In the course of the diatribe the patriarch declares that "they mix
wheaten flour with the blood of infants, and therewith celebrate their communion."
— (E. B. Tylor, "Primitive Culture," London, 1871, vol. i. p. 69.)
COURTSHIP AXD MARRIAGE. 221
les grains qui se sont attaches a leur corps, les mettent snr la meule
qu'elles font tourner a. rebours. Quand ils sont reduits en farine, elles
en font un pain qu'elles donnent a manger a leurs maris afin qu'ils
s'affaiblissent et qu'ils meurent. Si vous l'avez fait, vous ferez peni-
tence pendant quarante jours au pain et k l'eau. . . . Fecisti quod
quaedam nmlieres facere solent] Tollunt menstruum suum sanguinem
et immiscent cibo vel potui, et dant viris suis ad manducandum vel
ad bibendum, ut plus diligantur ab eis. . . . Fecisti quod quaedam
mulieres facere solent 1 Prosternunt se in faciem, et discoopertis natibus,
jubent ut supra nudas nates, conficiatur panis, et eo decocto tradunt
maritis suis ad comedendum. Hoc ideo faciunt ut plus exardescant in
amorem illarum. Si fecisti duos annos per legitimas ferias pcenitias.
— (Dulaure, "Traite des Differens Cultes," vol. ii. p. 262 et seq.)
The method of divination by which maidens strove to rekindle the
expiring flames of affection in the hearts of husbands and lovers by
making cake from dough kneaded on the woman's posterior, as given
in preceding paragraph, seems to have held on in England as a game
among little girls, in which one lies down on the floor, on her back,
rolling backwards and forwards, and repeating the following lines : —
" Cockledy bread, mistley cake,
When you do that for our sake."
While one of the party so lay down the rest of the party sat round ;
they lay down and rolled in this manner by turns.
Cockle Bread. This singular game is thus described by Anbray and
Kennett : " Young wenches have a wanton sport which they call
'moulding of cockle bread,' viz.: they get upon a table-board, and
then gather up their knees as high as they can, and then they wobble
to and fro, as if they were kneading of dough, and say these words :
' My dnme is sick, and gone to bed,
And I '11 go mould my cockle bread,
Up with my heels, and down with my head ! —
And this is the way to mould cockle bread.'
— (Quoted in Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 414, article
-Cockle Bread.")
These words " mistley " and " cockledy " were not to be found in
any of the lexicons examined, or in the " Dictionary of Obsolete and
Provincial English " of Thomas Wright, M. A., London, 1869, although
in the last was the word " mizzly " meaning "mouldy." It may pos-
siblv mean mistletoe.
222 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
"Cockle is the unhappy 'lolium' of Virgil, thought, if mixed with
bread, to produce vertigo and headache ; therefore, at Easter, parties
are made to pick it out from the wheat. They take with them cake,
cider, and toasted cheese. The first person who picks the cockle
from the wheat has the first kiss of the maid aud the first slice
of the cake." — (Fosbroke, " Encyclopaedia of Antiquities," vol. ii.
p. 1040.)
Vallencey describes a very curious ceremony among the Irish in the
month of September. " On the eve of the full moon of September
. . . straw is burnt to embers, and in the embers each swain in turn
hides a grain, crying out, ' I '11 tear you to pieces if you find my grain.'
His maiden lover seeks, and great is her chagrin if she does not find it.
On producing it, she is saluted by the company with shouts ; her lover
lays her first on her back, aud draws her by the heels through the
embers, then turning her on her face repeats the ceremony until her
nudities are much scorched. This is called posadamin, or the meal-
weddiug. . . . When all the maidens have gone through this cere-
mony, they sit down and devour the roasted wheat, with which they
are sometimes inebriated."- — (" De Rebus Hibernicis," vol. ii. p. 559.)
He undoubtedly means ergot ; he himself says that it is " a grain
that is sometimes found growing amongst the wheat in Ireland." He
also calls these " weddings " a " Druidical custom." — (Idem, p. 59S.)
A similar phallic dance is alluded to in John Graham DalyelFs
"Superstitions of Scotland," Edinburgh, 1834, p. 219.
In Sardinia " the village swains go about in a group ... to wait for
the girls who assemble on the public square to celebrate the festival.
Here a great bonfire is kindled, round which they dance and make
merry. Those who wish to be ' sweethearts of Saint John ' act as fol-
lows : The young man stands on one side of the bonfire, and the girl
on the other ; aud they, in a manner, join hands by each grasping a
long stick, which thev pass three times backwards and forwards across
the fire, thus thrusting their hands thrice rapidly into the flames."
At this dance, we read of " a Priapus-like figure, made of paste ; but
this custom, rigorously forbidden by the Church, has fallen into dis-
use." (" The Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 291.) " In some parts
of Germany young men and girls leap over midsummer bonfires for
the express purpose of making the hemp or flax grow tall." — (Idem,
p. 293.)
" Amongst the Kara-Kirghis barren women roll themselves on the
ground under a solitary apple-tree in order to obtain offspring." (Idem,
COURTSHIP AXD MARRIAGE. 223
vol. i. p. 73.) That this is a manifestation of tree worship, the author
leaves us no room to doubt ; and a consultation of his text will be re-
warded by several examples of a still more definite character, — such
as marriage with trees, wearing the bark as a garment in the hope of
progeny, etc.
Hoffman mentions a widow among the Pennsylvania Germans who
"became impressed with a boatman with whom she casually became
acquainted, and as he evinced no response to her numerous manifesta-
tions of regard, she adopted the following method to compel him to
love her, even against his will. With the blade of a penknife she scraped
her knee until she had secured a small quantity of the cuticle, baked it
in a specially prepared cake, and sent it to him, though with what re-
sult is not known. The woman was known to have the utmost faith
in the charm." — (" Folk-Medicine of Pennsylvania Germans," Ameri-
can Philosophical Society, 1889.)
"I was at Madrid in 1784. ... A beggar, who generally took his
stand at the door of a church, had employed his leisure in inventing
and selling a species of powder to which he attributed miraculous
effects. It was composed of ingredients the mention of which would
make the reader blush. The beggar had drawn up some singular for-
mularies to be repeated at the time of taking the powder, and required,
to give it its effect, that those who took it should put themselves into
certain postures more readily imagined than described. His composi-
tion was one of those amorous philtres in which our ignorant ances-
tors had so much faith ; his, he pretended, had the power of restoring
a disgusted lover and of softening the heart of a cruel fair one." —
(Bourgoanne's " Travels in Spain," in Pinkerton, vol. v. p. 413.)
" When a young man is trying to win the love of a reluctant girl lie
consults the medicine-man, who then tries to find some of the urine
and saliva which the girl has voided, as well as the sand upon
which it has fallen. He mixes these with a few twigs of certain woods,
and places them in a gourd, and gives them to the young man, who
takes them home, and adds a portion of tobacco. In about an hour
he takes out the tobacco and gives it to the girl to smoke ; this effects
a complete transformation in her feelings." — (" Conversation with
Muhongo," an African boy from Angola, translated by Rev. Mr.
Chatelain.)
Lovers who wished to increase the affections of their mistresses were
recommended to try a transfusion of their own blood into the loved
one's veins. — (Flemming, " De Remediis," etc., p. 15.)
224 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
See notes taken from Flemming, under " Perspiration ; " also under
" After-Birth and Woman's Milk," and under " Catameuial Fluid."
Beaumont and Fletcher may have had such customs in mind when
writing " Wit without Money."
" Ralph. Pray, empty my right shoe, that you made your chamber-
pot, and burn some rosemary in it." — (v. i.)
Rosemary, like juniper (q. v.), was extensively used for disinfecting
sleeping apartments.
ANTI-PHILTERS.
To protect the population from the baleful effects of the love-philter,
there was, fortunately, the anti-philter, in which, strangely enough, we
come upon the same ingredients. Thus mouse-dung, applied in "the
form of a liniment, acts as an antiphrodisiac," according to Pliny
(lib. xxviii. cap. 80). " A lizard drowned in urine has the effect of an
antiphrodisiac upon the man whose urine it is." (Idem, lib. xxx. cap.
49.) " The same property is to be attributed to the excrement of snails
and pigeon's dung, taken with oil and wine." — (Idem.)
A powerful antiphrodisiac was made of the urine of a bull and the
ashes of a plant called "brya." "The charcoal too of this wood is
quenched in urine of a similar nature, and kept in a shady spot. When
it is the intention of the party to rekindle the flames of desire, it is
set on fire again. The magicians say that the urine of a eunuch will
have a similar effect." — (Idem, lib. xxiv. cap. 42.)
" According to Osthanes ... a woman will forget her former love
by taking a he-goat's urine in drink." — (Idem, lib. xxviii. cap. 77.)
Hen-dung was an antidote against philters, especially those made
of menstrual blood. " Contra Philtra magica, in specie ex sanguine
menstruo femineo." (" Chylologia," p. 816, S17.) Dove-dung was also
administered for the same purpose, but was not quite so efficacious.
A journeyman cabinet-maker had been given a love-potion by a
young woman, so that he could n't keep away from her. His mother
then bought a pair of new shoes for him, put into them certain herbs,
and in them he had to run to a certain town. A can of urine was
then put into his right shoe, out of which he drank, whereupon he per-
fectly despised the object of his former affection.
A prostitute gave a love-potion to a captain in the army. Some of
her ordure was placed in a new shoe, and after he had walked therein
an hour, and had his fill of the smell, the spell was broken. Panllini
here quotes Ovid, —
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 225
" Ille tuas redolens Phineu raedicamina mensas
Non serael est storuacho nausea facta meo."
A man was given in his food some of the dried ordure of a woman
whom he formerly loved, and that created a terrible antipathy toward
her. — (Paullini, p. 258.)
" The seeds of the tamarisk mixed in a drink or meat with the urine
of a castrated ox will put an end to Venus." — (" Saxon Leechdoms,"
vol. i. p. 43, quoting Pliny, lib. 21, c. 92.)
" Galenos says that the priests eat rue and agnus castus, it seems,
as a refrigerative." — (Idem, p. 43.)
The herb rue was used by the Romans as an amulet against witch-
craft, and was also employed in the exorcisms of the Roman Catholic
Church. — (Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 315, article
" Rural Charms.")
An examination of the best available authorities upon the properties
of this plant disclosed the following : " It was formerly called ' herb of
grace ' (see Hamlet, act iv. scene 5), because it was used for sprinkling
the people with holy water. It was in great repute among the
ancients, having been hung about the neck as an amulet against witch-
craft, in the time of Aristotle. ... It is a powerful stimulant."
(Chambers's Encyclopedia, article " Rue.") " Rue is stimulant and
anti-spasmodic ; . . . occasionally increases the secretions. ... It ap-
pears to have a tendency to act upon the uterus ; . . . in moderate
doses proving emmenagogue, and in larger producing a degree of irrita-
tion in the organ which sometimes determines abortion ; . . . taken
by pregnant women, . . . miscarriage resulted ; . . . used in amenor-
rhoea and in uterine hemorrhages." (" United States Dispensatory,"
Philadelphia, 1886, article " Ruta.") Here are presented almost the
same conditions as were found in the mistletoe, — the plant had a
direct, irritant action upon the geuito-urinary organs, aud in all prob-
ability was employed to induce the sacred urination and to asperse
the congregation with the fluid for which holy water was afterwards
substituted.
Rue aud agnus castus are mentioned by Avicenna as medicines
which "coitus desiderium sedant." (Vol. i. pp. 2G6, b 45, 406, a60.)
The same author (vol. i. p. 906, a 63) mentions rue with the testicles
of a fox as an Aphrcdisiac, and the testicles of the goat are mentioned
in the same connection. — (Idem, p. 907, b 67.)
Dulaure (" Des Differens Cultes," vol. ii. p. 288) speaks of certain
" fasciniers " or charlatans, who vended secretly love-philters to bar-
15
226 SCATAL0G1C RITES OF ALL NATION'S.
reii women. " lis prononcaient pour operer leurs charmes des mots
latins et avaieut 1'iutention de fixer dans les alimeus des epoux une
poudre proveuant des parties sexuelles d'un loup."
Beckherius repeats the antidote for a love-philter of placing some of
the woman's ordure in the man's shoe ; " Si, in amantis calceurn, ster-
cus amatiB ponatur;" and he also cites the couplet from Ovid already
quoted, p. 225.
" Secundines " were also employed to render abortive the effects of
philters. (See Etmuller, "Opera Omnia," Schroderi dilucidati Zob-
logia, vol. ii. p. 265.) "In philtris curandis spiritus secundinae vel
pulvis secundinse mirabilis facit." This was of great use in epilepsy,
but should be, if possible, "secundinam mulieris sanse, si potest esse
primiparse et quae filium enixa fuit." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 271.)
Against philters, as well as to counteract the efforts of witches at-
tacking people just entering the married state, by such maleficent
means as " ligatures," and other obstacles, ordure was facile princeps
as a remedy. Likewise, to break up*a love affair, nothing was superior
to the simple charm of placing some of the ordure of the person seek-
ing to break away from love's thraldom in the shoe of the one still
faithful. It is within the bounds of possibility that this remedy would
be found potential even in our own times, if faithfully applied. " Con-
tra philtra, item pro ligatis et maleficiatis a mulieribus sequens Jo-
hannes Jacobus Weckerus . . . pone de egestione seu alvi excremento
ipsius mulieris mane in fotulari dextro maleficiati et statim cum ipse
sentiet foetorum solvitur maleficium. . . . Quod si in amantis calceum
stercus amatae posueris, ubi odorem senserit, solvitur amor," etc. (sev-
eral examples are given). — (" Chylologia," p. 791.)
Mr. Chrisfield, of the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C, im-
parts a fact which dovetails in with the foregoing item in a very inter-
esting manner. He says that, in his youth, which was passed on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland, he learned that, among the more ignorant
classes of that section it was a rule that when a father observed the
growing affection of his son for some young girl, he should endeavor
to obtain a little of her excrement, and make the youth wear it under
the left arm-pit ; if he remained constant in his devotion after being
subjected to this test, the father felt that it would be useless to inter-
pose objection to the nuptials.
There is a case mentioned in Scotland in which " aversion was in-
spired on the part of the female." To remedy this " the man got a
cake" (ingredients not mentioned) "to be put under his left arm, be-
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 227
twixt his shirt and his skin, observing silence, until the nuptial couch
was sprinkled with water and the mystical cake withdrawn." — (Super-
stitions of Scotland," Dalyell, p. 305.)
One might safely wager guineas to shillings that, in the above exam-
ple the mystical cake was the legitimate descendant of one formerly
compounded of very unsavory ingredients, and that the water with
which the nuptial couch was to be sprinkled, had replaced a fluid
closely related to the liquid employed by the Hottentots on such
occasions.
"To procure the dissolving of bewitched and constrained love, the
party bewitched must make a jakes (i. e. privy) of the lover's shoo.
And to enforce a man, how proper soever he be, to love an old hag, she
gives unto him to eate (among other meates) her own dung." —
(Scot's " Discoverie," p. 62.)
This subject of " Nouer l'aiguillette " is referred to by Dulaure. —
("Traite des Dif. Cultes," vol. ii. p. 288.)
" If a man makes water upon a dog's urine, he will become disin-
clined to copulation, they say." — (Pliny, lib. xxx. c. 49.)
" Beware thee that thou mie not where the hound mied ; some men
say that there a man's body changeth so that he may not, when he
cometh to bed with his wife, bed along with her." — (De Med. de Quad,
of Sextus Placitus, from " Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 365.)
228 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXXI.
SIBERIAN HOSPITALITY.
A CURIOUS manifestation of hospitality has been noticed among
-*"*- the Tchuktchi of Siberia : Les Tschuktschi offrent leurs femmes
aux voyageurs ; mais ceux-ci, pour s'en rendre digues, doivent se sou-
mettre a une ^preuve degoutante. La fille ou la femme qui doit passer
la nuit avec son nouvel bote lui presente une tasse pleine de son urine ;
il faut qu'il s'en rince la bouche. S'il a ce courage, il est regarde
comme un ami sincere ; siuon, il est traits comme un ennemi de la
famille. — (Dulaure, "Des Divinites Generatrices," Paris, 1825, p.
400.)
Among the Tchuktchees of Siberia, " it is a well known custom to
use the urine of both parties as a libation in the ceremony ; and like-
wise between confederates and allies, to pledge each other and swear
eternal friendship." — (" In the Lena Delta," Melville, p. 318.)
The presentation of women to distinguished strangers is a mark of
savage hospitality noted all over the world, but never in any other
place with the above peculiar accompaniment ; yet Mungo Park as-
sures his readers that, during his travels in the interior of Africa, a
wedding occurred among the Moors while he was asleep. He was
awakened from his doze by an old woman bearing a wooden bowl,
whose contents she discharged full in his face, saying it was a present
from the bride.
Finding this to be the same sort of holy water with which a Hotten-
tot priest is said to sprinkle a newly married couple, he supposed it to
be a mischievous frolic, but was informed that it was a nuptial bene-
diction from the bride's own person, and which, on such occasions, is
always received by the young unmarried Moors as a mark of distin-
guished favor. — (Quoted iii Brand, " Popular Antiquities," London,
1849, vol. ii. p. 152, article "Bride-Ales." See also Mungo Park's
"Travels in Africa," New York, 1813, p. 109.)
In Hottentot marriages " the priest, who lives at the bride's kraal,
enters the circle of the men, and coming up to the bridegroom, pisses
SIBERIAN HOSPITALITY. 229
a little upon him. The bridegroom receiving the stream with eager-
ness rubs it all over his body, and makes furrows with his long nails
that the urine may penetrate the farther. The priest then goes to the
outer circle and evacuates a little upon the bride, who rubs it in with the
same eagerness as the bridegroom. To him the priest then returns, and
having streamed a little more, goes again to the bride and again scatters
his water upon her. Thus he proceeds from one to the other until he
has exhausted his whole stock, uttering from time to time to each of
them the following wishes, till he has pronounced the whole upon both :
' May you live long and happily together. May you have a son before
the end of the year. May this son live to be a comfort to you in your
old age. May this son prove to be a man of courage and a good hunts-
man.'"— (Peter Kolbein, Voy. to the Cape of Good Hope, in Knox,
"Voyages," London, 1777, vol. ii. pp. 399, 400. This statement of
Kolbein is cited by Maltebrun, Univ. Geog. vol. ii. article " Cape of
Good Hope," but he also mentions Thurnberg, Sparmann and Foster
as authorities. Pinkerton, vol. xvi. pp. 89 and 141, likewise quotes
from Thurnberg on this subject.)
" Have I not drunk to your health, swallowed flap-dragons, eat
glasses, drank wine, stabbed arms, and done all the offices of pro-
tested gallantry for your sake 1" — (Marston's " Dutch Courte-
san," London, 1605 ; see also footnote on the same point in the
"Honest Whore," Thomas Dekkar, 1604, edition of London, 1825.
" Dutch flap-dragons," " Healths in urine." See also " A New Way
to Catch the Old One," Thomas Middleton, 1608, ed. of Rev. Alex.
Dyce, London, 1840; footnote to above: "Drinking healths in urine
was another and more disgusting feat of gallantry." Again, for flap-
dragons, see in " Kam Alley," by Ludovick Barry, 1611, ed. of London,
1825.)
In the " Histoire Secrete du Prince Croq' Etron," M'lle Laubert,
Paris, 1790, Prince Constipati is entertained by the Princess Clyster-
ine ; elle lui donna de la limonade, de la faeon d'Urinette " (p. 17).
Brand has a very interesting chapter, entitled "Drinking Wine in
the Church at Marriages," in which it appears that the custom pre-
vailed very generally among nations of the highest civilization, of
having the bride, groom, and invited guests, share in a cup or chalice,
filled with some intoxicant; in England, a country which has never
raised the grape, this drink is wine ; in Ireland, it was whiskey. Brand
traces it back to a Gothic origin, but he himself calls attention to the
230 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
breaking of wine-glasses at the marriage ceremony among Hebrews,
from which circumstance a still greater antiquity may be inferred.
" Cobbler's punch," urine with a cinder in it. — (Grose, " Diction-
ary of Buckish Slang," London, 1811.)
" A beautiful lady, bathing in a cold bath, one of her admirers, out
of gallantry, drank some of the water." — (Idem, article "Toast.")
" We were told that the priest (of the Hottentots) certainly gives
the nuptial benediction by sprinkling the bride and groom with his
urine." — (Lieut. Cook, R. N., in " Hawkesworth's Voyages," London,
1773, vol. iii. p. 387.)
Similar statements are to be found in the writings of Hahn and
others of the Dutch missionaries to the natives of South Africa.
The malevolence of witchcraft seems to have taken the greatest
pleasure in subtle assaults upon those just entering the married state.
Fortunately, amulets, talismans, and counter-charms were within
reach of all who needed them. The best of all these was thought to
be urination through the wedding-ring. — (See Brand, "Pop. Ant.,"
vol. iii. p. 305.)
The variants of this practice are innumerable, and are referred to
by nearly all the old writers.
Beckherius tells his readers that to counteract the effects of witch-
craft, and especially of " Nouer l'Aiguillette " ..." Si per nuptialam
annulum sponsius mingat, fascina et Veneris impotentia solvetur, qua
a maleficiis ligatus fuit." — ("Med. Microcos." p. 66.)
" Pisse through a wedding-ring if you would know who is hurt in
his privities by witchcraft." — (Reg. Scot, " Discoverie," p. 64.)
"Si quis aliquo veneficio impotens ad usum veneris factus fuerit at
quam prim urn mingat per annulum conjugalem." — (Frommann,
"Tract, de Fascinat." p. 997.)
Etmuller did not believe that witches could " nouer l'aiguillette ; "
he attributed that effect to excessive modesty ; yet all the remedies
mentioned by him, by which the testes of the bridegroom were to be
anointed, contained " Zibethum " as an ingredient. — (See his " Opera
Omnia," vol. i. p. 461 b, and 462 a.)
For loss of virility, Paullini recommends drinking the urine of a
bull, immediately after be has covered a cow, and smear the pubis
with the bull's excrements ; also piss through the engagement ring
(pp. 152, 153).
But when witches have been the occasion of such impotence, the
victim should urinate through the wedding ring immediately after
SIBERIAN HOSPITALITY. 231
discovering his misfortune ; he also advises urination upon a broom ;
human ordure was also efficacious. Or, take castor-oil plant, put it
into a pot, add some of the patient's urine, hermetically seal, boil
slowly, and then bury in an unfrequented spot. By this method, the
witches will either be made to piss blood, or have other tormenting
pains until they relieve the bewitched one. — (Idem, pp. 264, 265.)
Etmuller describes another " sympathetic " cure for this infirmity :
This prescribed that the bridegroom should catch a fish (the Latin
word is "lucium," meaning probably our pike), forcibly open its
mouth, urinate therein, and throw the fish back in the water, up-
stream ; then try to copulate, taking care to urinate through the wed-
ding-ring, both before and after. " Si quis emat lucium piscem sexus
masculini, huic per vim aperiatur os, et in os ejus immittatur nrinam,
malefieiati. Hie lucius ita vivus immittatur in fluvium, idque contra
ejusdem cursum . . . subito namque tollitur maleficium si non sit
nimis inveteratum, etc. . . . probatum etiam fnit si sponsus ante cop-
ulationem et etiam post earn mittat suatn uriuam per annulum spon-
salitinm quern accepit a sponsa." He gives another cure, of much the
same kind, which, however, required that the micturation through the
ring should be done in a cemetery while the patient was lying on his
back on a tombstone. "A vetula suppeditato dura scil. in cementerio
quodam missit urinam per annulum cujusdam lapidis sepulchro incum-
bentis." — (Etmuller, vol. i. p. 462 a, 462 b.)
This remedy is believed in and practised by the peasantry in some
parts of Germany to the present day. " A married man who has
become impotent through evil influences can obtain relief by forming
a ring with his thumb and forefinger, and urinating through it se-
cretly."— (" Sagen-marchen, Yolkaberglanben, aus Schwaben," Drs.
Birlinger and Buck, Freiburg, 1861, p. 486.)
Grimm, in his "Teutonic Mythology" (vol. iii.) refers to " Nouer
Faiguillette," but adds nothing to what has been presented above.
There are certain quaint usages connected with weddings among the
peasantry of Russia, as well as among the rustic population of Eng-
land, which might excite the curiosity of antiquarians. In the first
case, there is a " sprinkling" with water once used bj- the bride For
the purpose of bathing her person ; in the other, there is a " sale" of
a liquid by the bride, this liquid being an intoxicant.
Wedding ceremonies of the peasantry of Samogitia : " The bride
was led on the wedding-day three times round the fireplace of her
future husband ; it was theu customary to wash her feet, and with the
232 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
same water that had been used for that purpose the bridal bed, the
furniture, and all the guests were sprinkled." — (Maltebrun, "Univ.
Geog.," vol. ii. p. 548, art. " Russia.")
By a reference back to page 60 of this volume, it will be seen that
the Queen of Madagascar favored her subjects in the same way. This
sprinkling with the water used as above may be a survival of a former
practice, in which the aspersion was with the urine of the bride.
" Bride-Ale, Bride-Bush, and Bride-Stake are nearly synonymous
terms, and are all derived from the circumstance of the bride's selling
ale on the wedding-day, for which she received, by way of contribu-
tion, whatever handsome price the friends assembled on the occasion
chose to pay her for it." (Brand, "Pop. Ant.," vol. ii. p. 143, art.
" Bride-Ales.") In this article he introduces the story from Mungo
Park already given in these pages, and seems to have a suspicion that
the custom above described could be traced back to a rather unsavory
origin.
The derivation of the English word "bridal" is very obscure; Fos-
broke says that the word "bride-ale" comes from the bride's selling
ale on her wedding-day, and the friends contributing what they liked
in payment of it." — ("Cyclop, of Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 818, under
"Marriage" and "Bride-Ales.")
The Latin name for beer or ale was " cerevisia," which would seem
to be a derivative from the name of the goddess. It may, in earlier
ages, have been a beverage dedicated to that goddess, employed in her
libations, and held sacred as the means of producing the condition
of inebriation, which in all nations has been looked upon as sacred.
Beclns tells that there are still nations who regard their brewers as
priests, and there are others who exalt their milkmen to that office :
" Les Chewsoures du Caucase ont leurs pretres brasseurs ; les Todas
des Neilgherries leurs divins fromagiers." — ("Les Primitifs," p. 110,
article " Les Inoits Occidentaux.")
Hazlitt mentions the case where the Fairies, having a mock bap-
tism and no water at hand, made use of strong beer." — (" Fairy
Tales," London, 1875, p. 385.)
Beer would appear entitled to claim as old an origin as alcohol ; it
is mentioned in the sacred books of the Buddhists of Tibet : " La
Biere d'hiver (dguntchang)." — (" Pratimoksha Sutra," translated by
W. W. Eockhill, Paris, 1885, Socie'te Asiatique.)
PAKTUKITION. 233
xxxn.
PARTURITION.
T?OR the cure of sterility, Pliny says that "authors of the very
-*- highest repute . . . recommend the application of a pessary
made of the fresh excrement voided by an infant at the moment of its
birth." The urine of eunuchs was considered to be " highly beneficial
as a promoter of fruitfulness in females." — (Lib. xxviii. cap. 18.)
" A hawk's dung, taken in honeyed wine, would appear to render
females fruitful." — (Idem, lib. xxx. c. 4-1.)
" Ut mulier concipiat, infantis masculi stercus quod primum enatus
emittet, suppositum locis mulieris conceptionem facit et prsestat." —
(Sextus Placitus, " De Medicamentis ex Animalibus," Lyons, 1537,
pages not numbered, article " De Puello et Puella Virgine.")
Schurig recommends an application of bull-dung to the genitalia of
women to facilitate pregnancy. (" Chylologia," vol. ii. p. 602.) Tho
woman drank her own urine to ease the pains of pregnancy. (Idem,
p. 535.) There is a method of inducing conception outlined in vol. ii.
p. 712, by the use of a bath of urine poured over rusty old iron.
Mouse-dung was applied as a pessary in pregnancy. (Idem, pp. 728,
729.) Hawk-dung drunk by a woman before coitus insured concep-
tion. (Idem, p. 748.) Goose or fox dung rubbed upon the pudenda
of a woman aided in bringing about conception. (Idem, p. 748.)
Leopard-dung was also supposed to facilitate conception ; pastilles were
made of it, and the sexual parts fumigated therewith ; or a pessary
was inserted and kept in place for three days and three nights :
"Ea quamvis antea sterilis fuit, deiuceps tamen concipiet." — (Idem,
p. 820.)
But Schurig warns his readers that care must be exercised in the
use of such remedies. He gives an instance of a woman who applied
the dung of a wolf to her private parts, and soon after bearing a
child, found him possessed of a wolfish appetite. — (Idem, lib. i. cap. 1,
article "De Bulimo Brutorum," p. 24.)
234 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" When ladies desire to know whether or not they are enceinte,
Paullini recommends that they urinate in an earthen vessel wherein a
needle has been thrown. Let it stand over night ; should the needle
become covered with small red ' spots, the woman is enceinte ; but
should it be black or rusty, she is not. To determine whether she is
to have a son or daughter, dig two small pits ; put barley in one, and
wheat in the other ; let the enceinte lady urinate into both ; then
cover up the vessels with earth ; if the wheat sprout first, it is to be a
sou ; if the barley sprout before the wheat, it is to be a daughter." —
(Paullini, p. 163.)
Or, throw a pea into each parcel of urine ; then the pea which ger-
minates first, etc., etc. "Aut injiciatur leus in unius cujusque uriua
et cujus efflorescit, ille culpa caret," is the method suggested by Dan-
ielus Beckherius. — ("Med. Microcos. aut Spagyria Microcosmi," pp.
60, 61, quoting from still older authorities.)
He gives still another plan : " If you wish to determine whether a
woman is to bear children, pour some of her urine upon marsh-mal-
lows ; if they be fouud dry on the third day, she '11 not conceive. " Si
explorare volueris, utrum mulier ad concipiendam sit idonea, tunc
super malvam sylvesfrani urinam ejus funde ; si ille tertio die arida
fuerit, omnino minus idoneam illam habeto." — (Idem, p. 61.)
Paullini urges that the excrements of goats, hawks, horses, geese,
and the urine of camels be taken to remedy sterility (p. 161).
And the very same remedies are given by Beckherius and still older
writers.
English women, in some localities, drank the urine of their husbands
to assist them in the hour of labor.
"In the collection entitled ' Sylon, or the Wood' (p. 130) we read
that ' a few years ago, in this same village, the women in labor used to
drinke the urine of their husbands, who were all the while stationed,
as I have seen the cows in St. James's Park, straining themselves to
give as much as they can.' " — (Brand, " Popular Antiquities," London,
1849, vol. iii. article, "Lady in the Straw.")
" Mariti urina hausta partum difficilem facilitare dicitur." — (Et-
mulier, vol. ii. p. 265, Schroderi, "Dilucidati Zoologia.")
An instance of the drinking of her own urine by a pregnant woman
is to be read in Schurig (p. 45), art. " De Pica."
The warm urine of the husband was drunk for the same purpose :
" Scil. Hartmannus commendat ut difficiliter pariens libat haustum
urinfe mariti sui et ita si hie fuerit genuinus foetus parientam illam ex
PARTURITION. 235
parti solvi pntat; ast si urinse aliquid subest erit illud sali volatili
ad moreni aliorum omnium volatilium, attribuenduni." (Etmuller,
vol. ii. pp. 171, 172.) Here we have the husband's urine employed
not only as a medicine, but as a test of the wife's tidelity.
John Moncrief directs that, to facilitate conception, a pessary should
be inserted in the vagina, of which hare's dung was to be a component.
Horse's dung, drunk in water, aided a woman in childbirth. — (" The
Poor Man's Physician," Edinburgh, 1716, p. 149.)
" Ut mulier post partum in secundia non laboret, de lotio hominis
subtiliter gustet et secundse statim sequentur." — (Sextus Placitus.)
Dioscorides prescribed both human ordure and the duug of the vul-
ture to bring about the expulsion of the foetus. — (Materia Medica,
edition of Kuhn, vol. i. p. 232 et seq.)
Goose-dung, in internal doses, was prescribed by Pliny for the same
purpose. — (Lib. 30, c. 4.)
But the dung of the elephant or menstrual blood prevented concep-
tion, according to Avicenna : "Impregnationem prohibent . . . stercus
elephantis," vol. i. p. 390, bll ; "Impregnationem prohibent . . . san-
guis menstruus, si supponatus." — (Vol. i. pp. 330, a 35, 388, boO.)
For accidents to pregnant women, apply rabbit's dung externally ;
for miscarriages, man's urine, internally ; the excreta of lionesses,
hawks, and chickens, internally ; of horses and geese, externally and also
internally ; and of pigeons and cows, externally. For after-birth pains,
the patient's own urine, externally ; or the excrement of chickens, in-
ternally. — (Paulliui.)
Schurig recommended the use of lion-dung, internally, in cases of
difficult parturition. — (" Chylologia," p. 819.)
Etmuller says of secundines : " In partu difficili nil est proestantius "
(p. 270).
Both Pliny and Hippocrates recommend hawk-dung in the treatment
of sterility, and to aid in the expulsion of the foetus in childbirth ; it
was to be drunk in wine ; their prescription is copied by Etmuller :
"Hippocrates et Plinius ad sterilitatem emendandam propiuant." —
(vol. ii. p. 285.)
For the expulsion of the dead foetus, Pliny recommended a fumiga-
tion of horse-dung. — (Lib. xxviii. c. 77.)
And Sextus Placitus says : " Similiter, mortuum etiam partum ejicit.
Idem facit ut mulier facile pariat si totum corpus suffumigaveris claudit
et ventrem." — (Cap. " De Equo.")
Etmuller advises the use of these fumigations to aid in the expul-
236 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
sion of the foetus and after-birth ; a potion of the dung should also be
administered in all such cases, being, in his opinion fully equal to the
dung of dogs or swallows. — (Vol. ii. p. 263.)
A parturient woman in New Hampshire, drank the urine of her hus-
band as a diuretic, forty or fifty years ago. — (Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.)
Flemming is another who recommends a draught of the husband's
urine to aid in delivery : " Porro, in partu difficili, uriuam mariti cali-
dam calido haustam esse " (p. 23).
" A urine tub was held above the head of a woman in labor to ward
off all manner of evil influences. — (Henry Rink, " Tales and Tradi-
tions of the Eskimo," Edinburgh, 1875, p. 55.)
"Gomez" (which is the "nirang" or urine of the ox) was prescribed
to be drunk as a purifying libation by a woman who had miscarried.
(See Fargard V. Avendidad, Zendavesta (Damesteter's translation), Max
Midler's edition. "Sacred Books of the East," Oxford, 1880, p. 62.)
"She shall drink gomez mixed with ashes, three cups of it, or six or
nine, to wash over the grave within her womb. . . . When three
nights have passed, she shall wash her body, she shall wash her
clothes, with gomez and with water by the nine holes, and thus shall
she be clean." — (Idem, pp. 63, 90.)
" Avec une tendre solicitude, les bonnes amies versent sur la tete de
la femme en travail le contenu d'un pot de chambre pour fortifier, disent-
elles." — (" Les Primitifs," Elie Reclus, p. 43 ; " Les Inoits Orien-
taux.")
" The Commentaires of Bernard the Provincial, informs us " says
Daremberg, " that certain practices, not only superstitious but dis-
gusting, were common among the doctrines of Salerno ; one, for
instance, was to eat themselves, and also to oblige their husbands to
eat, the excrements of an ass fried in a stove in order to prevent ster-
ility."— ("The Physicians of the Middle Ages," Minor, Cincinnati,
Ohio, p. 6, translated from Dupuoy's " Le Moyen Age Medicale.")
Mr. Havelock Ellis calls attention to the use of cow's urine after
confinement by the women of the Cheosurs of the Caucasus. See also
under " Witchcraft," " Therapeutics," " Divination," " Amulets and
Talismans," " Cures by Transplantation," " Ceremonial Observances."
WEANING.
For an example of Urinal Aspersion, in connection with Weaning,
see on page 211.
INITIATION OF WAKRIOKS. — CONFIRMATION. 237
XXXIII.
INITIATION OF WARRIOKS. — CONFIRMATION.
r[^HE attainment by young men of the age of manhood is an event
which among all primitive peoples has been signalized by peculiar
ceremonies ; in a number of instances ordure and urine have been em-
ployed, as for example : The observances connected with this event in
the lives of Australian warriors are kept a profound secret, but, among
the few learned is the fact that the neophyte is " plastered with goat
dung." — (See " Aborigines of Australia," A. Brough Smyth, Loudon,
1878, vol. i. p. 59, footnote.)
In. some parts of Australia, Smyth says that the youth of fourteen
or fifteen had to submit himself to the rite of " Tid-but," during which
his head was shaved and plastered with mud (" the head is then
daubed with clay ") " and his body is daubed with clay, mud, and
charcoal-powder and filth of every kind." (Smyth had previously
specified goat-dung.) " He carries a basket under his arm, containing
moist clay, charcoal, and filth. ... He gathers filth as he goes, and
places it in the basket." — (Idem, vol. i. p. GO.)
The young initiate throws this filth at all the men he meets, but
not at the women or children, as these have been warned to keep out
of his way. This is the account given by Smyth, but Featherman, from
whom Smyth derived his information, makes no such restriction in his
text, simply stating that the young man was considered to be " excom-
municated de facto." (See A. Featherman, " Social History of the
Races of Mankind," 2d Division, London, 1887, p. 152.) But, in either
case, it is surely remarkable to stumble upon the counterpart of one
of the proceedings of the Feast of Fools in such a remote corner of the
globe.
" Among many of the tribes, the ceremony of introducing a native
into manhood, is said to be accompanied with some horrible and dis-
gusting practices." — ("The Nat. Tribes of S. Australia," Adelaide,
238 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
1879, Introduction, xxviii, received through the kindness of the
Boyal Soc. of Sydney, N. S. Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)
"In order to infuse courage into boys, a warrior, Kerketegerkai,
would take the eye and tongue of a dead man (probably of a slain
enemy), and after mincing them and mixing with his urine, would ad-
minister the compound in the following manner. He would tell the
boy to shut his eyes and not look, adding : ' I give you proper kaikai '
('kaikai' is an introduced word, being the jargon English for food).
The warrior then stood up behind the sitting youth, and putting the
hitter's hand between his (the man's) legs, would feed him. After this
dose, 'heart along, boy no fright.'" — (A. C. Haddou, "The Ethnography
of the Western Tribes of Torres Straits," in Journal of the Anthrop.
Institute, Great Britain and Ireland, six. no. 3, 1890, p. 420. Ee-
ceived through the kindness of Frofessor H. C. Henshaw, U. S. Geol.
Survey, Washington, D. C.)
" Some other customs are altogether so obscene and disgusting I
must, even at the risk of leaving my subject incomplete, pass them over
by only thus briefly referring to them." — ("Nat. Tr. of S. Australia,"
p. 280.)
Monier Williams repeats almost what Miiller says about the Parsis.
A young Parsi undergoes a sort of confirmation, during which "he is
made to drink a small quantity of the urine of a bull." — (" Modern
India," London, 1878, p. 178.)
FEARFUL RITE OF THE HOTTENTOTS.
A religious rite of still more fearful import occurs among the same
people at the initiation of their young men into the rank of warriors —
a ceremony which must be deferred until the postulant has attained
his eighth or ninth year. It consists, principally, in depriving him of
the left testicle, after which the medicine man voids his urine upon
him.1
" At eight or nine years of age, the young Hottentot is, with great
ceremony deprived of his left testicle." (Kolbein, p. 402.) He says
nothing about an aspersion with urine in this instance, but on the
succeeding page he narrates that there is first a sermon from one of
the old men, who afterwards " evacuates a smoking stream of urine all
over him, having before reserved his water for that purpose. The
youth receives the stream with eagerness and joy; and making furrows
1 See in Picart, Coutumes et Ceremonies Religieuses, vol. vii. p. 47.
INITIATION OF WARRIORS. CONFIRMATION. 239
with the long nails in the fat upon his body, nibs in the briny fluid
with the quickest action. The old man, having given him the last
drop, litters aloud the following benediction : ' Good fortune attend
thee ; live to old age. Increase and multiply. May thy beard grow
soon.'" — (Idem, p. 403.)
" The young Hottentot, who has won the reputation of a hero by
killing a lion, tiger, leopard, elephant, etc., is entitled to wear a bladder
in his hair; he is formally congratulated by all his kraal. One of the
medicine-men marches up to the hero and pours a plentiful stream over
him from head to foot, — pronouncing over him certain terms which I
could never get explained. The hero, as in other cases, rubs in the
smoking stream upon his face and every other part with the greatest
eagerness." — (Idem, p. 404.)
Eev. Theophilus Hahn cites Kolbeiu in " Beitriige fur Kuude der
Hottentoten," in Jahrbuch fur Erdkunde, von Dresden, 1870, p. 9,
as communicated by Dr. Gatchett of the Bureau of Ethnology, Wash-
ington, D. C. For further references to the Hottentot ceremony of
Initiation, by sprinkling the young warrior with urine, consult Pinker-
ton's "Voyages," vol. xvi. pp. 89 and 141, where there is a quotation
from Thurnberg's " Account of the Cape of Good Hope." See also
Maltebruu, " Univ. Geog." vol. ii. article " The Cape of Good Hope."
The Indians of California gave urine to newly -born children. " At
time of childbirth, many singular observances obtained ; for instance,
the old women washed the child as soon as it was born, and drank of
the water; the unhappy infant was forced to take a draught of urine
medicinally."— (Rancroft, H. H. "Native Races," vol. i. p. 413.)
Forloug states that at the time of investiture of the Indian boy with
the sacred thread, "the fire is kindled with the droppings of the
sacred cow." — (•• Rivers of Life," Loudon, 1883, vol. i. p. 323.)
Valuable information was also received from Mr. Edward Palmer, of
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, especially in regard to the Kalkadoon
tribe near Cloncurry, who are among those who split the urethra.
In order to bring up an Eskimo child to be an " Angerd-lartug-sick,"
— that is, "a man brought up in a peculiar manner, with a view to
acquiring a certain faculty by means of which he might be called to life
again and returned to laud, in case he should be drowned," — " for
this purpose the mother had to keep a strict fast and the child to be
accustomed to the smell of urine." — ■ (Rink, " Tales and Traditions of
the Eskimo," p. 4.).)
Eeclus says of the Inuit child selected to be trained as an Angekok :
240 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Sitot nee, la petite creature sera aspergee d'urine de maniere a l'im-
pregner de sou odeur caracteristique ; c'est decidement leur eau benite.
Ailleurs, la barbe, la chevelure, l'entiere persoime des rois et sacrifica-
teurs sont ointes d'huile prise dans de saintes ampoules; ailleurs,
elles sout beurrees et barbouillees de bouse soigneusernent etendues."
— (" Les Primitifs," p. 84, " Les Inoits Occidentaux.')
For initiation in witchcraft, " Dans la Hesse, le postulant se place
but du funiier en pronoucant des formules magiques, et pique un cra-
paud avec un baton blanc qu'il jette ensuite a l'eau." — (" La Fascina-
tion," J. Tuchmann, in " Melusine," Paris, July-August, 1890, p. 93.)
" I am strongly inclined to the belief that all these rites are survivals
or debased vestiges of the blood-covenant practice, by which the par-
taking of each other's selves (by whatever is a portion of one's self,) is
a form of covenanting by which two persons become as one. Are you
aware of the fact that the habit of giving the urine of a healthy child
to a new-born babe has prevailed down to the present day among rus-
tic nurses in New England, if not elsewhere, in America? I can bear
personal testimony to this fact from absolute knowledge. It is a note-
worthy fact that the Hebrew word chaneek, which is translated ' trained '
or ' initiated,' and which is used in the proverb, ' Train up a child,' etc.,
has as its root-idea (as shown in the corresponding Arabic word) the
' opening of the gullet ' in a new-born child, the starting the child in
its new life. Among some primitive peoples fresh blood, as added life,
is thus given to a babe; and in other cases it is urine." — (Personal
letter from Rev. H. K. Trumbull, editor of the " Sunday-School Times,"
Philadelphia, April 19, 1888.)
" The priesthood of the false gods is hereditary in the family. . . .
Others may be introduced into the corps of fetich priests, but they
have to pay dearly for the honor. . . . Every morning before sunrise
and every evening at sunset the aspirants were heard singing in choir,
directed by an old fetich priestess." These ceremonies of consecra-
tion " last several days. . . . The crinkled hair which is completely
shaved off of some, and only from the crown of the head of others,
the aspersion of 1 astral water, the imposition of the new name." —
(" Fetichism," Rev. P. Baudin, New York, 1885, pp. 74, 75.)
" One observer of the customs of the blacks has stated in the journal
of the Anthropological Society of London that in the Hunter River
District of New South Wales, the catechumens at some parts of the
Bora ceremonies are required to eat ordure ; but I have made diligent
inquiries iu the same locality and elsewhere, but have found nothing
INITIATION OF WARRIORS. — CONFIRMATION. 241
to corroborate his statement. Similarly, in one district in Queensland,
it is said that the blacks, whether at the Bora or not I cannot say,
make cup-like holes in the clay soil, collect their urine in them, and
drink it afterwards. This latter statement may be true, but I have
never been able to substantiate it by information from those who
know. Various considerations, however, lead me to think it possible
that our blacks, in some places at least (for their observances are not
everywhere the same), may use ordure and urine in that way, thinking
that the evil spirit will be propitiated by their eating in his honor that
which he himself delights to eat ; just as in Northwestern India a de-
votee may be seen going about with his body plastered all over with
human dung in honor of his god. And our blacks have good reason to
try to propitiate this unclean spirit (Gunung-dhukhya) in every pos-
sible way, for they believe that he can enter their bodies, and effecting
a lodgment in their abdomen, feed there on the foulest of the contents,
and thus cause cramps, fits, madness, and other serious disorders.
The non- Aryan population of India have similar beliefs ; for among the
devil-worshippers of Western India there are certain malignant spirits
called Bhutas ; and these in their habits are similar to Gunungdhuduk-
hya. They too cause mischief by taking possession of the body, and
they delight to devour human beings ; they too live in desert places,
especially among tall trees. They take the forms of men and animals,
and prowl about in burial-grounds, and eat the carcasses." — (Personal
letter from John Frazer, LL.D., dated Sydney, New South Wales, De-
cember 24, 1889.)
This correspondent has struck the keynote of the curious behavior
of the prophet Ezekiel and others. Believing, as was believed in their
day, that deities ate excrement, why should not they, the representa-
tives of the gods, eat it too 1 And if a god enter into a man's body to
eat excrement, why should not the victim feed him on that which is so
acceptable, and by gorging him free himself from pain 1
See, under "War Customs," the use of the drink wi/socca7i by the
Indians of Virginia, in their ceremonies of initiation.
See, under " Ordeals and Punishments," page 254, in regard to the
belief of the Australians.
WAR-CUSTOMS. ARMS AND ARMOR.
It is remarkable that we should be able to adduce any example of
the employment of excrementitious matter in war customs ; not that
16
242 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
we should not suspect their existence, but because on occasions of such
importance the medicine-meu, who arrogate to themselves so much
consequence in all military affairs, would naturally be more careful
to conceal their performances from profane eyes. There is very little
reason to doubt that a fuller examination would be rewarded with new
facts of additional interest and value.
When the Dutch were besieging Batavia, in the Island of Java, in
1623, the natives daubed themselves with human ordure, in all likeli-
hood for some vague religious purpose, — "a 1629, in obsidione
Batavos obsessos, in defectu aliorum ad defensionem necessariorum
requisitorum hostes suos Indos stercore humano ex cloacis collecto,
ollisque in ipsorum nuda corpora conjecto, fugasse." — (" Chylologia,"
p. 795.)
" Les Malais se servent de l'urine pour tremper leurs fameux criss.
Us eufoncent ces poignards dans la terre, et pendant un certain temps,
ils viennent uriuer de maniere que cette terre soit toujours imbibee
d'urine." — (Personal letter from Dr. Bernard, Cannes, France, dated
July 7, 1888.)
Against what was known in the Middle Ages as " magical impene-
trability," human ordure was in high repute. The sword or " machete "
of the person exposed to attack from such an enemy should be rubbed
in pig-dung. But let Schurig tell his own story : " Scilicet, priusquam
cum adversario hujus rei suspecto congrediaris, cuspis maehseree vel
gladii, stercori suillo infigatur ; vel si eminus agendum, globuli bom-
berdis infarciendi per sphiucterem ani ducantur ; quod certissimum
dicitur antidotum contra hanc non minus quam Diaboli Incantationes."
— (" Chylologia," p. 791, par. 64.)
Frommann states that arms may be bewitched so that they can do
harm ; but he makes no mention of human or auimal excreta in such
connection. — ("Tract, de Fascinat.," p. 654.)
" Dum gladio quo vuluus fuit inflictum sive crueuto sive non cruento
applicatur unguentum quod vocant magneticum armarium quo curatur
vulnus." (Etmuller, vol. i. p. 68.) This magnetic ointment was
made of human ordure aud human urine.
See also page 298 of this volume.
" The Scythians prefer mares for the purposes of war, because they
can pass their urine without stopping in their career." — (Pliny, lib.
viii. cap. 66.)
The " black drink " of the Creeks and Seminoles was an emetic and
cathartic of somewhat violent nature. It was used by the warriors of
INITIATION OF WARRIORS. — CONFIRMATION. 243
those tribes when about to start out on the war-path or engage in any
important deliberations. — (See Cornwallis Clay's dissertation upon
the Seminoles of Florida, in " Aunual Report of Bureau of Ethnology,"
Washington, D. C, 1888.)
The " black drink " of the Creeks was made from the Iris Versi-
color (Natural order, Iridacaea), "an active emeto-cathartic, abundant
in swampy grounds throughout the Southern States." — (See Briutou,
"Myths of the New World," New York, 1868, p. 274.)
Beverly mentions "a mad potion," "the Wysoccan," used by the
Indians of Virginia during " an initiatory ceremony called Huskansaw,
which took place every sixteen or twenty years," which he calls " the
water of Lethe," and by the use of which they " perfectly lose tho
remembrance of all former things, even of their parents, their treasure,
aud their language." — ("Golden Bough," vol. ii. p. 349, quoting Bev-
erly's "History of Virginia," London, 1722, p. 177.)
See, under " Insults," p. 256, for the war customs of the Samoans.
See also " Catamenia ; " " Witchcraft."
244 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXXIV.
HUNTING AND FISHING.
T^HE African hunter in pursuit of game, such as elephants, anoints
-*- himself " all over with their dung." — (Father Merolla, in Pink-
erton, vol. xvi. p. 251, "Voyage to Congo.") This, he says, is merely
to deceive the animal with the smell.
Pliny relates that in Heraklea the country-people poisoned panthers
with aconite. But the panthers had sense enough to know that hu-
man excrement was an antidote. (Lib. xxviii. c. 2.) Again in lib.
viii. c. 41 he tells of the aconite-poisoned panther curing itself by
eating human excrement. Knowing this fact, the peasants suspend
human excrement in a pnt so high in the air that the panther exhausts
itself in jumping to reach it, and dies all the sooner.
Schurig ("Chylologia," p, 774) has the above tale, but has taken it
from Claudius yEmilianus, as well as Pliny.
The reindeer Tchuktchi feign to be passing urine in order to catch
their animals which they want to use with their sleds. The reindeer,
horses, and cattle of the Siberian tribes are very fond of urine, prob-
ably on account of the salt it contains, and when they see a man
walking out from the hut, as if for the purpose of relieving his bladder,
they follow him up, and so closely that he finds the operation anything
but pleasant.
" The Esquimaux of King "William's Land and the adjacent peninsula
often catch the wild reindeer by digging a pit in the deep snow, and
covering it with thin blocks of snow, that would break with the weight
of an animal. They then make a line of urine from several directions,
leading to the centre of the cover of the pitfall, where an accumulation
of snow, saturated with the urine of the dog, is deposited as bait.
One or more animals are thereby led to their destruction." — (Per-
sonal letter from the Arctic explorer, W. H. Gilder, dated New York,
October 15, 1889.)
" The dogs of the Esquimaux are equally fond of excrement, espe-
cially in cold weather, and when a resident of the Arctic desires to
HUNTING AND FISHING. 245
relieve himself, he finds it necessary to take a whip or a stick to
defend himself against the energy of the hungry dogs. Often, when
a man wants to urge his dog-team to greater exertion, he sends his
wife or one of the boys to run ahead, and when at a distance, to stoop
down and make believe he is relieving himself. The dogs are thus
spurred to furious exertion, and the boy runs on again, to repeat the
delusion. This never fails of the desired effect, no matter how often
repeated." — (Idem.)
" I only know one superstitious use of excrement, — that wherein
the hooks were placed round some before the fishing incantations
began." ("The Maoris of New Zealand," E. Tregear, in "Journal of
the Anthrop. Institute," Loudon, 1889.) This bears a very close
resemblance to certain of the uses of cow-dung in India.
The people of Angola, west coast of Africa, when about to set out
ou a hunt, are careful to collect the dung of the elephant, antelope,
and other kinds of wild animals, and hand them to the medicine-
man, who makes a magical compound out of them, and places it in a
horn. It then serves as an amulet, and will ensure success in the
hunt. — (" Muhongo," an African boy from Angola ; interpretation
made by Kev. Mr. Chatelain.)
246 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXXV.
DIVINATION. — OMENS. — DREAMS.
A MONG the ancients there was a method of divination by excre-
"*"*"■ mentitious materials. — (See " Scatomancie," in Bib. Scat. p. 28.)
" Gaule, in his ' Mag-Astromancers Posed and Puzzled' (p. 165),
enumerates as follows the several species of divination." (Here fol-
lows a list of fifty-three kinds.) One of the kinds enumerated is
" Spatalomnacy, by skin, bones, excrement." — (Brand, "Pop. Ant.,"
pp. 329, 330.)
In the " Rhudhiradhyaya, or Sanguinary Chapter," translated from
the Calica Puran, in the 4th vol. "Asiatic Researches," 4th ed.,
London, 1807, the following is stated in regard to human victims :
" If, at the time of presenting the blood, the victim discharges faxes
or urine, or turns about, it indicates certain death to the sacrificer."
The Peruvians had one class of wizards (i. e., medicine-men) who
" told fortunes by maize and the dung of sheep." — (" Fables and
Rites of the Yncas," Padre Cristoval de Molina, translated by Clement
C. Markham, Hakluyt Society Transactions, London, 1873, vol. xlviii.,
p. 14. Molina resided in Cuzco, as a missionary, from 1570 to 1584.)
Les Hachus (a division of the Peruvian priesthood) cousultaient
l'avenir au moyen de grains de mats ou des excrements des animaux. —
(Balboa, " Histoire de Perou," p. 29, in Teruaux, vol. xv.)
See, also, D. G. Brinton's " Myths of the New World," New York,
1868, pp. 278, 279.
Ducange, enumerating the pagan superstitions which still survived
in Europe in a. d. 743, mentions divination or augury by the dung of
horses, cattle, or birds : " De auguriis vel avium, vel equorum, vel
bourn stercoracibus." — (Ducange, Glossary, article " Stercoraces.")
" What wise man would think that God would commit his counsel
to a dog, an owle, a swine, or a toade ; or that he would hide his
secret purposes in the dung or bowels of beastes 1 " Reg. Scot (" Dis-
coverie," p. 150), speaking of the omens consulted by Spaniards,
DIVINATION. — OMENS. — DREAMS. 247
English, and others, says : " Among the rustics of France, to dream of
ordure was regarded as a sign of good luck ; in like manner, to have
a ball, or auythiug that oue carried in the hand, fall in ordure, was
also a sign of good fortune."
" To dream of ordure means that somebody is going to try to be-
witch you." — (" Muhongo," a boy from Angola, Eastern Africa, in
conversation with Captain Bourke ; translation by Rev. Mr. Chatelain.)
This belief iu the good or bad prognostications to be derived from
dreams about ordure, was very widely disseminated. " Luck, or Good
Luck. To tread iu Sir Reverence ; to be bewrayed ; an allusion to
the proverb, ' Sh-tt-n luck is good luck.' " — (" Grose, Diet, of Buckish
Slang," London, 1811.)
" Inasmuch as the sun of morning, or spring, conies out of the dark-
blue bird of night, we can understand the popular Italian and German
superstition, that when the excrement of a bird falls upon a man it is
an omen of good luck. The excrement of the mythical bird of night,
or winter, is the sun." — ("Zool. Mythol.," Angelo de Gubernatis,
vol. ii. p. 176, London, 1872.)
" When a Hindu child's horoscope portends misfortune or crime, he
is born again from a cow, thus : being dressed in scarlet, and tied on a
new sieve, he is passed between the hind legs of a cow, forward
through the fore legs to the mouth, and again iu the reverse direction,
to simulate birth; the ordinary birth ceremonies (aspersion, etc.) are
then gone through, and the father smells his son as a cow smells her
calf."— (Frazer, "Totemism," Edinburgh, 1887, p. 33.)
To put one's foot in dung is supposed by the French peasantry to
imply the acquirement of wealth. — (Mr. W. W. Rockhill.)
Among the Kamtchatkans, if a child has been born in stormy
weather, they believe that to be a bad omen, and that the child will
cause storm and rain wherever it goes. As soon as it is grown and
can speak, they purify it, and appease heaven by the following method :
During a most violent storm of wind and rain, the child is compelled
to walk naked, holding a cup or shell of Mytues high above its head,
around the ostrag and all balagans and dog huts, and to say the fol-
lowing prayer to Billukai and his Kamuli : " Gsaulga, set yourselves
down and stop urinating or storming ; this shell it used to salty but
not to sweet water ; you make me very wet, and I almost freeze to
death ; besides, I have no clothing ; see how I tremble." — (Steller,
translated by Bunnemeyer.)
r>iviuation by urine seems to have been superseded by holy water
248 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
iu a " chrystall." Scot, speakiug of the latter mode, says : " They
take a glass vial, full of holy water, ... on the mouth of the vial or
urinall," etc. — (" Discoverie," p. 188.)
There is among children in the United States and England, and pos-
sibly on the couthieut of Europe as well, a superstition to the effect
that the one who plucks the dandelion will become addicted to the
habit of urinating in bed during sleep. The author has been unable
to trace the origin of the curious notion or to obtain any explanation
of it.
" Leontodon. Dandelion. Children that eat it in the evening ex-
perience its diuretic effects in the night, which is the reason that other
European nations as well as the British vulgarly call it piss-a-bed." —
(Encyclopaedia, Philadelphia, Penn., 1797, article "Leontodon.")
"The following compendious new way of magical divination, which
we find so humorously'described in Butler's 'Hudibras' as follows, is
affirmed by M. Le Blanc, in his ' Travels,' to be used in the East
Indies : —
" ' Your modern Indian magician
Makes but a hole in th' earth to pisse in,
And straight resolves all questions by it,
And seldom fails to be iu th' right.' "
(Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 331, article "Divination.")
Cicero makes no mention of a method of divination by excrement,
although, as shown by the references from the "Bib. Scat." and from
Ducange, such methods must have been in vogue.
The Kamtehatkans believe that " if they ease nature during
sleep, it signifies guests of their nation." — (Steller, translated by
Bunnemeyer.)
Montfaucon says that the Koman Haruspices " observed in the
beasts that were sacrificed not only the entrails in general, but also
the gall and bladder in particular." — (" l'Antiquite expliquee," lib. i.
part 1, cap. 6.)
See extract from Gilder's " Schwatka's Search," under " Mortuary
Ceremonies," p. 262. See " Witchcraft," " Amulets and Talismans,"
" Urinoscopy," " Virginity," " Sterility," " Courtship and Marriage,"
" Childbirth."
ORDEALS AND PUNISHMENTS. 249
XXXVI.
ORDEALS AND PUNISHMENTS, TERRESTRIAL AND
SUPERNAL.
TN beginning this chapter it is fair to say that oaths will herein be
-^ regarded as a modified form of the ancient ordeal, in which the
affiant invokes upon himself, if proved to have sworn falsely, the tor-
tures of the ordeal, mundane or celestial, which in an older form of
civilization he would have been obliged to undergo as a preliminary
trial.
The avithor learned while campaigning against the Sioux and Chey-
ennes, in 1876— IS 77, that the Sioux and Assinaboines had a form of
oath sworn to while the affiant held in each hand a piece of buffalo
chip.
Among the Hindus, " sometimes the trial was confined to swallowing
the water in which the priest had bathed the image of one of the
divinities. . . . The negroes of Issyny dare not drink the water into
which the fetiches have been dipped when they affirm what is not the
truth." — (" Phil, of Magic," Eusebe Salverte, New York, 1862, vol. ii.
p. 123.)
They formerly may have drunk the urine of the god or priest.
In " the ' Domesday Survey,' in the account of the city of Chester,
vol. i. p. 262, we read : ' Vir sive mulier falsam mensuram in civitate
faciens deprehensus, IIII solid, emendab. Similiter malam cervisiam
faciens, aut in Cathedra pouebatur stercoris, aut IIII solid, de prepotis.' "
— (Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 103, article " Cucking
Stool."
" The ducking stool was a legal punishment. Roguish brewers and
bakers were also liable to it, and they were to be ducked in stercore
in the town ditch." — (Southey, "Commonplace Book," 1st series,
p. 401, London, 1849.)
In Loango, Africa, " When a man is suspected of an offence he is
carried before the king," and " is compelled to drink an infusion of a
kind of root called 'imbando.' . . . The virtue of this root is that, if
250 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
they put too much into the water, the person that drinketh it cannot
void urine. . . . The ordeal consists in drinking and then in urinating
as a proof of innocence." — (See " Adv. of Andrew Battell," in Pinker-
ton's " Voyages," vol. xvi. p. 334.)
In Sierra Leone the natives have a curious custom to which they
subject all of their tribe suspected of poisoning. They make the culprit
drink a certain " red water ; after which for twenty-four hours he is
not allowed to ease nature by any evacuation ; and should he not be
able to restrain them, it would be considered as strong a proof of his
guilt as if he had fallen a victim to the first draught." — (Lieutenant
John Matthews, R. N., " Voyage to Sierra Leone," 1785, London, 1788,
p. 126.)
In the Hindu mythology, "slanderers and calumniators, stretched
upon beds of red-hot iron, shall be obliged to eat excrements." —
(Southey, " Commonplace Book," 1st series, London, 1849, p. 249.
He also refers to 2 Kings xviii. 27, and to Isaiah xxxvi. 12.)
" D'apres le systeme religieuse de Brahme, la punition des calomnia-
teurs dans l'eufer, consiste a etre nourris d'excrements." — (Majer.
Diet. Mythol. en allemagne, t. 2, p. 46 ; Bib. Scat., p. 12.)
Herodotus relates that Pheron, the son of Sesostris, conqueror of
Egypt, became blind, and remained so for ten years.
" But in the eleventh year an oracle reached him from the city of
Buto, importing that the time of his punishment was expired, and he
should recover his sight by washing his eyes with the urine of a woman
who had intercourse with her own husband only, and had known no
other man." Herodotus goes on to relate that Pheron tried the urine
of his own wife and that of many other women ineffectually ; finally he
was cured by the urine of a woman whom he took to wife ; all the
others he burnt to death. — ("Euterpe," part ii. cap. 3.)
In the " Histoire Secrete du Prince Croq' Etron," par M'lle Lau-
bert, Paris, 1790, King Petaud orders Prince Gadourd to be buried
alive in ordure, — a punishment which would have suggested the au-
thor's acquaintance with Brahminical literature even had she not con-
fessed it in these terms : " Genre de supplice qui n'etait pas nouveau
puisque d'apres le systeme religieux de Brahme, la punition des calom-
niateurs dans l'enfer, consiste a 6tre nourri d'excrements."
The Africans have an ordeal, — "a superstitious ordeal, by drinking
the poisonous Muave," which induces vomiting only, according to
Livingston (" Zambesi," London, 1865, p. 120). This may or may not
be the " red drink " of Lieutenant Matthews cited above.
ORDEALS AND PUNISHMENTS. 251
Under the head of " Latrines," allusion has been made to the pro-
hibition, in the laws of the Thibetan Buddhists, against throwing ordure
upon growing plants, etc. There is another case mentioned by Rock-
hill, which may as well be inserted here : " Si une bhikshuni jette des
excrements de l'autre cote d'un mur sans y avoir regarde, c'est un pa-
cittiya." — (" Pratimoksha Sutra," translated by W. W. Eockhill, Soc.
Asiatique, Paris, 1885.)
In the words just quoted we find the definition of the offence as a
" pacittiya," or sin. The punishment for each sin or class of sins was
carefully regulated and well understood in Thibetan uuuueries.
" Cock-stool." " A seat of ignominy ... in which scolding or im-
moral women used to be placed formerly as a punishment ; . . . same
as ' sedes Stercoraria.' " — (" Folk-Etymology," Rev. A. Smythe-Palmer,
London, 1882. See also Chambers's " Book of Days," vol. i. p. 211.)
The Chinese have a very curious and very horrible mode of pun-
ishment ; criminals of certain classes are enclosed in barrels or boxes
filled with building lime, and exposed in a public street to the rays
of the noon-day sun ; food in plenty is within reach of the unfor-
tunate wretches, but it is salt fish, or other salt provision, with all the
water needed to satisfy the thirst this food is certain to excite, but
in the very alleviation of which the poor criminals are only adding
to the torments to overtake them when by a more copious discharge
from the kidneys the lime shall "quicken" and burn them to death.
Iu the famous bull of Ernulphus, Bishop of Rochester, cited in " Tris-
tram Shandy," the delinquent was to be cursed, " mingendo, cacando."
— (See "Tristram Shandy," Lawrence Sterne, ed. of London, 1873,
vol. i. p. 188.)
"Fasting on bread and drinking water defiled by the excrement of
a fowl " are among the disciplinary punishments cited in Fosbroke's
" Mouachism," London, 1817, p. 308, note.
This specimen of monastic discipline may be better understood when
read between the lines. The veneration surrounding chickeu-dung in
the religious system of the Celts, prior to the introduction of the
Christian religion, could be uprooted in no more complete manner than
by making its use a matter of scorn and contempt ; history is replete
with examples wherein we are taught that the things which are held
most sacred in one cult are the very ones upon which the fury and
scorn of the superseding cultus are wreaked. On this point read the
notes taken from the pamphlet of Mr. James Mooney, in regard to the
superstitions attaching to the uses of chicken-dung among the Irish
peasantry.
252 SCATALOGIC BITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" I have mentioned the sacrifice of cocks by Kelts ; it was, and still
is, all over Asia, the cheap, common, and very venial substitute for
man." — (" Rivers of Life," Forloug, London, 1883, vol. ii. p. 274.)
We may reasonably infer that the dung of chickens as used by the
Irish is a representative of, and a substitute for, human ordure.
The Easter season which has preserved and transmitted to our times
so many pagan usages, has among its superstitions one to the effect
that " every person must have some part of his dress new on Easter
day, or he will have no good fortune that year. Another saying is
that unless that condition be fulfilled, the birds are likely to spoil your
clothes."— (Brand, "Pop. Antiq." vol. i. p. 165, art. "Easter Day.")
The Kalmucks believe in many places of future punishment, one of
them being " tin de ces sejours est couvert d'une nuee d'ordures et de
vidanges." (Pallas, Paris, 1793, vol. i. p. 552.) This is the belief
inculcated by their Lamas.
At the Lithuanian festival called " Sabarios," fowls were killed and
eaten. " The bones were then given to the dog to eat ; if he did not
eat them all up, the remains were buried under the dung in the cattle-
stall."— (" The Golden Bough," vol. ii. p. 70.)
In cases of sickness " the inhabitants of a village are forbidden to
wash themselves for a number of days, . . . and to clean their cham-
ber-pots before sun-rise." — ("The Central Eskimo," Dr. Franz Boas,
in Sixth An. Rep. Bur. of Ethnol. Wash. D. C. 1888, p. 593.)
" We have seen that in modem Europe, the person who cuts or binds
or threshes the last sheaf is often exposed to rough treatment at the
hands of his fellow-laborers. For example, he is bound up in the last
sheaf and thus encased is carried or carted about, beateu, drenched with
■water, thrown on a dunghill, etc." — ("The Golden Bough," i. 367.)
In several parts of Germany, the Fool of the Carnival was buried
under a dung-heap. (Idem, vol. i. p. 256.) Further on, is given this
explanation : " The burying of the representative of the Carnival under
adung-heap is natural, if he is supposed to possess a quickening and
fertilizing influeuce like that ascribed to the effigy of Death." — (Idem,
vol. i. p. 270.)
" In Siam it was formerly the custom, on one day of the year, to
single out a woman broken down by debauchery, and carry her on a
litter through all the streets, to the music of drums and hautboys.
The mob insulted her and pelted her with dirt ; and, after having car-
ried her through the whole city, they threw her on a dunghill. . . .
They believed that the woman thus drew upon herself all the malign,
influences of the air and of evil spirits." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 196.
ORDEALS AND PUNISHMENTS. 253
In Suabia there is a rough harvest game in which one of the labor-
ers takes the part of the sow ; he is pursued by his comrades and if
they catch him " they handle him roughly, beating him, blackening or
dirtying his face, throwing him into filth. ... At other times he is
put in a wheelbarrow. . . After being wheeled round the village, he
is flung on a dunghill" — ( Idem, vol. ii. pp. 27, 28.)
The negroes of Guinea are firm believers in the theory of Obsession,
and have a god "Abiku" who "takes up his abode in the human
body." He generally bothers little children, who sometimes die. " If
the child dies, the body is thrown on the dirt-heap to be devoured
by wild beasts." — ("Fetichism," Baudin, p. 57.)
"The Iroquois inaugurated the new year in January " with "a festi-
val of dreams. ... It was a time of general license. . . . Many seized
the opportunity of paying off old scores by belaboring obnoxious per-
sons, . . . covering them with filth and hot ashes." — ("The Golden
Bough," vol. ii. p. 165, quoting Charlevoix, " La Xouvelle France.")
" During the madder harvest in the Dutch province of Zealand, a
stranger passing by a field where the people are digging the madder
roots, 'will sometimes call out to them, Koortspillers' (a term of re-
proach). Upon this, two of the fleetest runners make after him, and
if they catch him, they bring him back to the madder field and bury
him in the earth up to his middle at least, jeering at him all the while ;
they then ease nature before his face." — (Idem, vol. i. p. 379.)
" Now, it is an old superstition that by easing nature on the spot
where a robbery is committed, the robbers secure themselves for a
certain time against interruption. . . . The fact, therefore, that the
madder-diggers resort to this proceeding in presence of the stranger
proves that they consider themselves robbers and him as the person
robbed." — (Idem, p. 380.)
In connection with the above, the following deserves consideration :
" Reverence. An ancient custom which obliges auy person easing him-
self near the highway or footpath, on the word ' reverence ' being given
him by a passenger, to take off his hat with his teeth, and, without
moving from his station, to throw it over his head, by which it fre-
quently falls into the excrement. This was considered as a punish-
ment for the breach of delicacy. A person refusing to obey this law
might be pushed backwards. Hence, perhaps, the term ' sir-rever-
ence.' " — (Grose, " Diet, of Buckish Slang.")
It is more likely that the practice had some connection with the
fear of witchcraft, or the evil eye of the stranger ; we can hardly credit
254 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
that peasant y living in an age when the highest classes received their
guests at bedside receptions, " ruelles," or in their " cabinets d'aisance,"
■would be squeamish in the trifling matter just alluded to.
In Japan " When any of these panders die . . . their bodies are
cast upon a dunghill." — (John Saris, in Purchas, i. 368, a. d. 1611.)
" The tricks of the fayry called Pach." " I smurch her face if it be
cleane, but if it be durty, I wash it in the nest pisse-pot I can finde."
— ("Life of Eobiu Goodfellow," Black Letter, London, 1628, in Haz-
litt's "Fairy Tales," London, 1875, p. 205.)
But the "women fayries," under similar circumstances, "wash their
faces and hands with a gilded child's clout." — (Idem, p. 206.)
" Their own spirits too will have nothing but excrement to eat, if
during life the rites of the Bora (Initiation) have not been duly per-
formed. With this compare the declaration of the Indian Manes (xii.
71) that a Kahatya who has not done his duty, will, after death, have
to live on ordure and carrion. And in the Melanesian Hades the
ghosts of the wicked have nothing to eat but vile refuse and excre-
ment." — (Personal Letter from John Frazer, LL.D., to Captain Bourke,
dated Sydney, New South Wales, Dec. 24, 1889.)
The Australians believed that if a man did not allow the septum of
the nose to be pierced, he would suffer in the next world. " As soon
as ever the spirit Egowk left the body, it would be required, as a pun-
ishment, to eat Toorta-gwaunang " (filth not proper for translation). —
("Aborigines of Victoria," Smyth, vol. i. p. 27-4.)
Among some of the Australian tribes is found a potent deity named
" Pund-jel," whom Mr. Andrew Lang thinks may be the Eagle-Hawk.
"As a punisher of wicked people, Pund-jel was once moved to drown
the world, and this he did by a flood which he produced (as Dr. Brown
says of another affair) by a familiar Gulliverian application of hy-
draulics." — (" Myth, Bit., and Eelig.," Lang, London, 1887, ii. 5.)
Maurice cites five meritorious kinds of suicide, in the second of
which the Hindu devotee is described as "covering himself with cow-
dung, setting it on fire, and consumiug himself therein." — (Maurice,
" Indian Antiquities," London, 1800, vol. ii. p. 49.)
"Throw this slave upon the dunghill." — (King Lear, act. iii. sc. 6.)
When Squire Iden killed Jack Kade he exclaimed : —
" Hence will I drag thee, headlong hy the heels,
Unto a dunghill which shall be thy grave." ■ — (2 K. Henry, vi. 10.)
" Steward. Out, dunghill." — (King Lear, act iv. sc. 6.)
ORDEALS AND PUNISHMENTS. 255
" Forbearance from meat and work are also prescribed to a single
woman in case the sun or moon (though we should rather call it a bird
flying by) should let any uncleanness drop upon her ; otherwise, she
might be unfortunate, or even deprived of her life." — (Crantz, "His-
tory of Greenland," London, 1767, vol. i. p. 216.)
The "bitter water" of the Hebrew ordeals by which the woman ac-
cused of unfaithfulness was either proved innocent, or had her belly
burst upon drinking, presents itself in this connection. — (See Num-
bers v.)
Dante, in his cap. xiii. speaks of those condemned for flattery : " a
crowd immersed in ordure." — (Gary's translation.)
Ducange alludes to what may have been an ordeal or a punishment :
" Aquam sordidam et stercoratem super sponsam jactare." — (" In Lege
Longobardi," lib. i. tit. 16, c. 8.)
The Hebrew prophets sat on dungheaps while the recalcitrant peo-
ple of Israel were warned : " Behold, I will spread dung upon your
faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts, and one shall take you away
with it." — (Malachi ii. 3.)
By reference to another portion of this volume, it will be seen that
stercoraceous matter was deemed potent in frustrating witchcraft.
Thus a mother was ordered to throw a " changeling " child upon a dung-
hill (p. 403.) The prostitutes of Amsterdam kept horse-dung in
their houses for good luck, etc. Consequently, when we read of the
corpses of criminals or witches having been thrown upon dunghills, we
may let fancy indulge the idea that it was to render nugatory any
schemes the ghost might cherish of wreaking revenge.
The historian Suetonius relates that tho unfortunate Roman em-
peror Vitellius was pelted with excrement before being put to death.
Among the unlawful acts for Brahmans or Kshatriyas who are com-
pelled to support themselves by following the occupations of Vaisyas,
is selling sesamum, unless " they themselves have produced it by tillage.
... If he applies sesamum to any other purpose but food, anointing,
and charitable gifts, he will be boru again as a worm, and together with
his ancestors be plunged into his own ordure." — (" Vasishtha," cap. ii.
27-30. " Sacred Books of the East," Oxford, 1882, vol. xiv., edition
of Max Midler. This is one of the oldest of the Sacred Books. The
same prohibition is to be found in "Prasna" 11, "Adhyaya" 1,
" Kandika " 2.)
256 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXXVII.
INSULTS.
IT is somewhat singular to find in the myths of the Zunis — the
-1- very people among whom we have discovered the existence of this
filthy rite of urine-drinking — an allusion to the fact that to throw
urine upon persons or near their dwellings was to be looked upon as an
insult of the gravest character. During the early winter of 1881 the
author was at the Pueblo 'of Zuni, New Mexico, while Mr. Frank H.
Gushing was engaged in the researches which have since placed him at
the head of American anthropologists, and then heard recited by the
old men .the long myth of the young boy who went to the Spirit Land
to seek his father. One of the incidents upon which the story-tellers
dwelt with much insistence was the degradation and ignominy in
which the boy and his poor mother lived in their native village, as was
shown by the fact that their neighbors were in the habit of emptying
their urine vessels upon their roof and in front of their door.
The threat made against the Jews by Sennacherib (in Isaiah xxxvi.
12) deserves consideration in this connection; and also the threat in
the Old Testament, " There shall not be left one that pisses against
the wall."
" Connected with the Samoan wars, several other things may be
noted, such as consulting the gods, . . . haranguing each other previ-
ous to a fight, the very counterpart of Abijah, King of Judah, and
even word for word with the filthy-tongued Kabshakeh." — (" Samoa,''
Turner, p. 194.)
The people of Samoa have a myth relating a separation which oc-
curred between the natives of several islands, due to the fact that the
men and women living on Tutnaila " began to make a dunghill of their
floating island." — (Olosenga, idem, p. 225.)
" Nebuchadnezzar likewise gave Zedekiah (after he had made him
dance and play before him a long while) a laxative drink, so that, like
a beastly old fellow (as there are many such betwixt York and London),
INSULTS. 257
totns deturpatus fuit, he smelt as ill as your Ajax." In a marginal
reference, he adds : " According to an old ballad, —
■ And all to b n was he, was he.' "
— (Harington, "Ajax," p. 35.)
This behavior, disgusting as it appears to us in all its features, had
its parallel in the conduct of a prominent member of European aristoc-
racy, who was wont to indulge his anger in a manner strikingly similar
to the above at such moments as seemed to be proper for the punish-
ment of his servants. His name is suppressed at the request of the
correspondent furnishing the item.
Niebuhr says that the grossest insult that can be offered to a man,
especially a Mahometan, in Arabia, is to spit upon his beard, or to
say " De l'ordure sur ta barbe." — (" Desc. de l'Arabie," Amsterdam,
1774, p. 26.)
Niebuhr's remarks in regard to the offence taken by the Bedouins at
such an infraction of their etiquette as flatulence are repeated in a
vague and guarded form by Maltebrun (" Univ. Geog.," vol. ii. part
"Arabia").
In Angola, Africa, the greatest insult is, " Go and eat s — t."
— (Muhongo.)
" Dunghill. A coward. A cock-pit phrase, all but gamecocks being
styled dunghills." — (Grose, "Dictionary of Slang, London," 1811.)
Tailors who accepted the wages prescribed by law were styled
"Dung" by the "Flints," who refused them. — (Idem.)
Among the rough games of English sailors was one, " The Galley,"
in which a mopful of excrement was thrust in a landsman's face. —
(Idem.)
In Angola, Africa, flatulence is freely permitted among the natives ;
but any license of this kind taken while strangers are in the vicinity is
regarded as a deadly insult. — ("Muhongo," translated by Rev. Mr.
Chatelain.)
In the report of one of the early American explorations to the Trans-
Missouri region occurs the story that the Republican Pawnees, Nebraska,
once (about 1780-90) violated the laws of hospitality by seizing a
calumet-bearer of the Omahas who had entered their village, and,
among other indignities, making him "drink urine mixed with bison
gall." — (" Long's Expedition," Philadelphia, 1823, vol. i. p. 300.)
Bison gall itself sprinkled upon raw liver, just warm from the car-
cass, was regarded as a delicacy. The expression " excrement eater "
17
258 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
is applied by the Mandans and others on the Upper Missouri as a term
of the vilest opprobrium, according to Surgeon 'Washington Matthews,
U. S. Army (author of " Hidatsa," and other ethnological works of
authority), whose remarks are based upon an unusually extended and
intelligent experience.
" They gave me the abuse of the Punjabi, . . . pelting me with
sticks and cow-dung till I fell down and cried for mercy." — (" Gemini,"
Pudyard Kipling, in "Soldiers Three," New York, 1890.)
" May the garbage of the foundations of the city be thy food ; may
the drains of the city be thy drink." — (" The Chaldean Account of
Genesis," George Smith, New York, 1880.)
Among the CheyenDe expressions of contempt is to be found one
which recalls the objurgations of the Bedouins ; namely, natsi-viz, or
"s — t-mouth." — (Personal notes of September 25, 1878, interview
with the chiefs of the Northern Cheyennes, Ben Clark, interpreter.)
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, who has made such prolonged and careful
studies of the manners and myths of the tribes of the Siouan stock,
is authority for the statement that the worst insult that one Ponca
can give another is to say, " You are an eater of dog-dung ; " and it
is noticeable that the words of the expression are rarely used in
the language of every-day life. He gives other examples from myths,
etc., and supplies a variant of the story narrated by Captain Long ;
but as all this is to appear in one of the Doctor's coming books, it is
omitted from these pages.
The Kamchatkans say, " May you have one hundred burning lamps
in your podex," " Eater of faeces with his fish-spawn," etc. — (Steller,
translated by Bunnemeyer.)
" Stercus." As a term of abuse. — " Nolo stercus curiae dici Glau-
ciam."— (Cicero, " De Oratoribus," 3, 41, 164; Andrew's "Latin
Dictionary," New York, 1879, article "Stercus.")
Caracalla put to death those who made water in front of his
statues. " Damnati sunt eo tempore (that is, the end of his wars with
the Germans) qui urinam in eo loco ferraut in quo statuae aut imagines
erant principis." — (Aelius Lampridius, "Life of the Emperor Cara-
calla," edition of Frankfort, 1588, p. 186, lines 43 and 44.)
There are some very singular laws of the ancient Burgundians in
regard to abusive words. " Si quis alterum concagatum clamaverit,
120 denariis mulctetur." — (Barrington, " Obs. on the Statutes," Lon-
don, 1775, p. 315.)
INSULTS. 259
" I '11 pick thy head upon my sword,
And piss in thy very visonomy."
("Ram Alley," Ludowick Barry, 1611, edition of London, 1825.)
" The devil's dung in thy teeth."
(" The Honest Whore," Thomas Dekkar, 1604, edition of London, 1825.)
" Again the coarsest word, khara. The allusion is to the vulgar
saying, ' Thou eatest skitel ' (that is, ' Thou talkest nonsense '). Decent
English writers modify this to ' Thou eatest dirt ; ' and Lord Beacons-
field made it ridiculous by turning it into 'eating sand.'" — ("Ara-
bian Nights," Burton's edition, vol. ii. pp. 222, 223.)
Readers of classical history will recall the incident of the outrage
perpetrated by the mob of Tarentum upon the person of the Roman
ambassador Posthumus, 282 b. c. A buffoon in the street threw filth
upon his toga. The ambassador refused to be mollified, and tersely
telling his assailants that many a drop of Tarentine blood would be
required to wash out the stains, took out his departure. A cruel war
followed, and the Tarentines were reduced to the rank of a conquered
province. — (See " History of Rome," Victor Duruy, English transla-
tion, Boston, 1887, vol. i. p. 462.)
" When the multitude had come to Jerusalem, to the feast of un-
leavened bread, and the Roman cohort stood over the temple, . .
one of the soldiers pulled back his garment, and stooping down after
an indecent manner, turned his posteriors to the Jews, and spake such
words as might be expected upon such a posture." The narration de-
scribes the riot which followed as a result, and ten thousand people
were killed. — (See Josephus, " Wars of the Jews," book ii. edition of
New York, 1821.)
The dispute between Richard the Lion-Hearted and the Arch-Duke
of Austria, which resulted afterwards in the incarceration of the Eng-
lish king in a dungeon, had its rise in the great insult of throwing the
Austrian standard down into a privy. Matthew of Paris says distinctly
that Richard himself did this. " Now he, being over well disposed to
the cause of the Norman, waxed wroth with the Duke's train, and gave
a headstrong, unseemly order for the Duke's banner to be cast into a
cesspool." — (See " The Third Crusade and Richard the First," T. A.
Archer, in " English History from Contemporary Writers," New York,
1889.)
" Bigot. Out, dunghill ! Darest thou brave a nobleman ? "
(" King John," iv. 3.)
260 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Gloster. Shall I be flouted thus by dunghill grooms ? "
("1 King Henry VI.," i. 3.)
" York. Base dunghill villain and mechanical."
("2 King Henry VI.," i. 3.)
" ' Khara,' meaning dung, is the lowest possible insult. ' Ta-kara ' is
the commonest of insults, used also by modest women. I have heard
a mother use it to her son." — (Burton, " Arabian Nights," vol. ii.
p. 59, footnote.)
MORTUARY CEREMONIES. 261
XXXVIII.
MORTUARY CEREMONIES.
A PARSI is defiled by touching a corpse. "And when he is in
"^^ contact and does not move it, he is to be washed with bull's
urine and water." — (" Shapast la Shayast," cap. 2. ; " Sacred Books
of the East," Max Muller, editor, Oxford, 1880, pp. 262, 269, 270, 272,
273, 279, 281, 282, 333, 349.)
In the cremation of a Hindu corpse at Bombay, the ashes of the
pyre were sprinkled with water, a cake of cow-dung placed in the
centre, and around it a small stream of cow-urine ; upon this were
placed plantain-leaves, rice-cakes, and flowers. — (" Modern India,"
Monier Williams, p. 65.)
" They who return from the funeral must touch the stone of Pria-
pus, a fire, the excrement of a cow, a grain of sesame, and water, — all
symbols of that fecundity which the contact with a corpse might have
destroyed." — (" Zool. Mythol.," De Gubernatis, p. 49.)
The followers of Zoroaster were enjoined to pull a dead body out of
the water. " No sin attaches to him for any bone, hair, grass, flesh,
dung, or blood that may drop back into the water." — (Fargard VI.,
Vendidad, Zendavesta, Darraesteter's edition ; Max Muller's edition of
the " Sacred Books of the East," Oxford, 1880, p. 70.)
" There dies a man in the depths of the vale ; a bird takes flight
from the top of the mountain down into the depths of the vale, and it
eats up the corpse of the dead man there ; then up it flies from
the depths of the vale to the top of the mountain ; it flies to some
one of the trees there, — of the hard-wooded or the soft-wooded, and
upon that tree it vomits, it deposits dung, it drops pieces from the
corpse. ... If a man chop any of that wood for a fire, he is not
regarded as defiled because . . . Ahura-Mazda answered, ' There is no
sin upon any man for any dead matter that has been brought by dogs,
by birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies.' " — (Fargard V., of same
work.)
262 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
If a dog had died on a piece of ground, the ground had to lie fallow
for a year ; at the end of that time, " they shall look on the ground
for any bones, hair, flesh, dung, or blood that may be there." — (Far-
gard VI.)
If the clothing of the dead " has not been defiled with seed or
sweat or dirt or vomit, then the worshippers of Mazda shall wash it
with gomez." — (Fargard VII. Gomez (bull-urine) again alluded to
as the great purifier on pp. 78-80, 104, 117, 118, 122, 123, 128, 182,
183, 212.)
The sacred vessels that had been defiled by the touch of a corpse
were to be cleaned with gomez. — (Idem, pp. 91, 92.)
The most efficacious gomez was that of " an ungelded bull." —
(Idem, p. 212.)
" They shall cover the surface of the grave with ashes or cow-
dung."— (Fargard VIII.)
" Let the worshippers of Mazda here bring the urine wherewith the
corpse-bearers shall wash their hair and their bodies." — (Fargard
VIII. See, also, p. 201 of this volume.)
In describing the funerals of the Eskimo, Gilder says : " The closing
ceremony was a most touching one. After ' Papa ' had returned from
the grave, Armow went out of doors and brought in a piece of frozen
something that it is not polite to specify, further than that the dogs
had entirely done with it, and with it he touched every block of snow
on a level with the beds of the igloo. The article was then taken out
of doors and tossed up in the air, to fall at his feet ; and by the
manner in which it fell he could joyfully announce that there was
no liability of further deaths in camp for some time to come." —
("Schwatka's Search," Gilder, p. 234.)
" The Africans have an evil spirit called ' Abiku,' who takes up his
abode in the human body." This spirit is believed to cause the death
of children. "If the child dies, the body is thrown on the dirt-
heap." — (" Fetichism," Baudin, p. 57.)
There is also a purification of the soul of the dying by the same
peculiar methods. In Coromandel,1 the dying man is so placed that
1 Au Coromandel, ils mettent le visage du mourant sur le derriere d'une vache,
levent la queue de l'animal et l'excitent a- lacher son urine sur le visage ... si
l'urine coule sur la face du malade, l'assemblee s'ecrie de joye et le compte panni
les bienheureux, mais . . . si la vache n'est pas d'humeur d'uriner, on s'en anlige.
— (Picart, " Coutumes et ceremonies religieuses," etc., Amsterdam, 1729, vol. vii.
p. 28.)
MORTUARY CEREMONIES. 2Q3
his face will come under the tail of a cow ; the tail is lifted, and the
cow excited to void her urine. If the urine fall on the face of the sick
man, the people cry out with joy, considering him to be one of the
blessed ; but if the sacred animal be in no humor to gratify their
wishes, they are greatly afflicted.
" The inhabitants of the coast of Coromandel carried those of their
sick who were on the point of death, as a last resource, to the back of
a fat cow, whose tail they twisted to make her urinate ; if the cow's
urine spread over the whole face of the patient, it was a very good
sign to the dirty rascals." — (Paullini, pp. 80, 81.)
With equal solicitude does the Hottentot medicine-man follow the
remains of his kinsmen to the grave, aspersing with the same sacred
liquid the corpse of the dead and the persons of the mourners who
bewail his fate.1
At Hottentot funerals, "two old men, the friends or relations of the
deceased, enter each circle and sparingly dispense their streams upon
each person, so that all may have some ; all the company receive their
water with eagerness and veneration. This being done, each steps
into the hut, and taking up a handful of ashes from the hearth, comes
out by the passage made by the corpse, and strews the ashes by little
and little upon the whole company. This, they say, is done to humble
their pride." — (Kolbein, p. 401.)
" It is a pity that men in a savage state should take delight in
doing that which is nasty, but such is the fact. It is a very common
custom for the tribe, or that portion of it who are related to the one
who has died, to rub themselves with the moisture that comes' from
the dead friend. They rub themselves with it until the whole of
them have the same smell as the corpse." — (" Aborigines of Victoria,"
Smyth, vol. i. p. 131.) But in a footnote he adds that some of the
Australians will not touch a dead body with the naked hand.
In the mortuary ceremonies of the Encounter Bay tribe (South
Australians), " the old women put human excrement on their heads, —
the sign of deepest mourning." — (Idem, vol. i. p. 113.)
The corpse of an Australian chief was surrounded " with wailing
women, smeared with filth and ashes." — ("Native Tribes of South
Australia," Adelaide, 1879, p. 75, received through the kindness of
the Royal Society, New South Wales, Syduey, T. B. Kyngdon,
Secretary.)
1 Pieart, Coutumes et ceremonies religieuses, etc., Amsterdam, 1*29, vol. vii.,
pp. 52, 57.
264 SCATALOGIC BITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" In the burial ceremonies, the women of many tribes besmear or
plaster their heads with excrement and pipe-clay." — (Personal letter
from John F. Maun, Esq., dated Neutral Bay, Sydney, New South
Wales.)
" When a child dies, women who carried it in their hands must
throw their jackets away if the child has urinated on them. This is
part of the custom that everything that has come in contact with a
dead person must be destroyed." — ("The Ceutral Eskimo," Boas,
p. 612.)
The Kootenays of Canada have a ceremonial aspersion after fu-
nerals. " When those who have buried the body return, they take a
thorn bush, dip it into a kettle of water, and sprinkle the doors of all
lodges." — (" Report on the Northwest Tribes of Canada," Dr. Franz
Boas, to the British Association for the Advancement of Science,"
Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889, p. 46.)
Describing Italian funerals, Blunt says : " When the procession has
reached the church, the bier is set down in the nave, and the officiating
priest, iu the course of the appointed service, sprinkles the body with
holy water three times, — a rite in all probability ensuing from that
practised by the Romans, of thrice sprinkling the bystanders with the
same element." — ("Vestiges," p. 183.)
In the Tonga Islands, there are two principal personages, — Tooi-
tonga and Veachi, — who are believed to be the living representatives
of powerful gods. Upon the death of Tooitonga, certain ceremonies
are practised, among which : " The men now approach the mount,
i. e., the funeral mound, it being dark, and, if the phrase be allowable,
perform the devotions to Cloacina, after which they retire. As soon
as it is daylight the following morning, the women of the first rank,
wives and daughters of the greatest chiefs, assemble with their female
attendants, bringing baskets, one holding one side and one the other,
advancing two and two, with large shells to clear up the depositions of
the preceding night, and in this ceremonious act of humiliation, no
female of the highest consequence refuses to take her part. Some of
the mourners in the 'fytoca ' generally come out to assist ; so that, in
a very little while, the place is made perfectly clean. This is repeated
the fourteen following nights, and as punctually cleaned away by
sunrise every morning. No persons but the agents are allowed to be
■witnesses of these extraordinary ceremonies ; at least, it would be
considered highly indecorous and irreligious to be so. On the sixteenth
day, early in the morning, the same females again assemble ; but now
MORTUARY CEREMONIES. 265
they are dressed up in the finest ' gnatoo,' and most beautiful Hamao
mats, decorated with ribbons, and with wreaths of flowers round their
necks ; they also bring new baskets ornamented with flowers, and little
brooms, very tastefully made. Thus equipped they approach, and act
as if they had the same task to do as before, pretending to clear away
the dirt, though no dirt is now there, and take it away in their blan-
kets. . . . The natives themselves used to regret that the filthy part
of these ceremonies was necessary to be performed, . . . and that it
was the duty of the most exalted nobles, even of the most delicate
females of rank, to perform the meanest and most disgusting offices,
rather than that the sacred grounds in which he was buried should
remain polluted." (Dillon's "Expedition in Search of La Perouse,"
London, 1829, vol. ii. pp. 57-59.) Dillon says that this "must be
considered a religious rite, standing upon the foundation of very
ancient customs." — (Idem, p. 57.)
266 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XXXIX.
MYTHS.
" A LL peoples have invented myths to explain why they observed
-^- certain customs." — (" The Golden Bough," vol. ii. p. 128.)
" Myth changes while custom remains constant ; men continue to do
what their fathers did before them, though the reasons on which their
fathers acted have long been forgotten. The history of religion is a
long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason ; to find a
sound theory for an absurd practice." — (Idem, p. 62.)
The Australians have a myth of the Creation of Man ; it is given in
Latin : " Ningorope laetitise plena in latrina lutum amosne erubescens
cernebat ; hoc in hominis figuram formabat, quse tactu diva? moturn
vitalem sumebat et douc ridebat." — ("Aborig. of Victoria," Smyth,
vol. i. p. 425.)
This myth is given in English from another authority, on next page
of this volume.
The Creation Myth of the Australians relates that the god " Bund-
jil oceanum creavit minctione per plures dies in terrarum orbem.
Bullarto Bulgo magnam lotii copiam indicat." (Idem, vol. i. p. 429.)
(Bund-jil created the ocean by urinating for many days upon the orb
of the earth.) The natives say that the god being angry "Bullarto
Bulgo " upon the earth. Bullarto Bulgo indicates a great flow of urine.
The same myth has already been given from Andrew Lang, under
" Ordeals and Punishments."
In the cosmogonical myths of the islanders of Kadiack, it is related
that the first woman, " by making water, produced seas." — (Lisiansky,
" Voy. round the World," London, 1814, p. 197.)
" In the fourth story " (i. e., stories told by the Kalmucks and Mon-
gols) " it is under the excrement of a cow that the enchanted gem,
lost by the daughter of the king, is found." — ("Zool. Mythol." De
Gubernatis, p. 129.)
In the mythic lore of the Hindus, the god Utanka sets out on a jour-
ney, protected by Indras. " On his way, he meets a gigantic bull, and
MYTHS. 267
a horseman who bids him, if he would succeed, eat the excrement of
the bull ; he does so, rinsing his mouth afterwards." — (Idem, p. 80.)
Further on we learn that Utanka was told " the excrement of the
bull was the ambrosia which made him immortal in the kingdom of
the serpents." (Idem, pp. 81, 95.) Here we have the analogue of
the use of excrement and urine in Europe to baffle witches, and of the
drinking of the Siberian girl's urine, which in all probability was prof-
fered to the guest as an assurance that no witchcraft was in con-
templation, or else to baffle the witches, much as, in England, bridal
couples urinated through the wedding ring.
The Chinese have a mythical animal which has been identified with
the Tapir; it is called the Mih ; to it they ascribe the power to eat
iron and copper. " For this reason the urine of this animal is pre-
scribed when a person has swallowed iron or copper ; it will, in a short
time, change them into water." — ("Chinese Repository," Canton,
1839, vol. vii. pp. 46, 47.)
" The story of Joa lo Praube is repeated almost word for word in the
adventures of the Kamtchatkan god ' Kutka ; ' or, to be more exact,
there is a myth in which it is narrated that that god had a great many
tricks played upon him, in one of which he runs sticks into his gluteal
region." — (Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)
This god Kutka was a great sodomite, and in some points, resembled
the anti-natural god of the Sioux.
Speaking of the god " Aidowedo," the serpent in the Rainbow as
believed by the Negroes of Guinea, Father Baudin says : " He who
finds the excrement of this serpent is rich forever, for with this talis-
man he can change grains of corn into shells which pass for money."
(" Fetichism," Rev. F. Baudin, New York, 1885, p. 47.) He goes
on to narrate a very amusing tale to the effect that the negroes got the
idea that a prism in his possession gave him the power to bring the
Rainbow down into his room at will, and that he could obtain unlimited
quantities of the precious excrement.
Another myth of the foolish god "Kutka" represents him as falling
in love with his own excrement and wooing it as his bride ; he takes it
home in his sleigh, puts it in his bed, and is only restored to a sense
of his absurd position by the vile smell. — (Steller, translated by
Bunnemeyer.)
Possibly all this may be a myth to explain or to represent the state
of mind into which those who indulged in the " muck-a-moor " were
thrown, but even this interpretation seems far-fetched.
268 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Sir John Moore, it is stated, fell in love with his own urine, and we
have read from Montaigne the story of the French gentleman who pre-
served his egestse to show to his visitors.
The trilbes of the Narinyeri, Encounter Bay, South Australia, have
a legend that difference in language was caused when certain of their
ancestors " ate the contents of the intestines of the goddess ■ Wurruri.' "
— ("Nat. tribes of South Australia," Adelaide, 1879, p. 60, received
through the kindness of the Eoy. Soc, Sydney, N. S. Wales, T. B.
Kyngdou, Secretary.)
In the same chapter we are told of the omission of one or two cere-
monies "which were too indecent for general readers " (p. 61).
In the " Bachiller de Salamanca," Le Sage has a hero whose misfor-
tunes would lead us to suspect that Le Sage had been reading of some
of the doings of the Kamtchatkan god " Kutka," who, among the nu-
merous pranks played upon him by his enemies, the mice, suffered the
ignominy of having " a bag made of fish-skin attached to his orificium ani
while he lay sound asleep. On his way home Kutka desired to relieve
nature, but was much surprised, on leaving, at the insignificant deposit
notwithstanding he had freed himself of so great a burden.
" Surprised at his cleanliness, he narrated the circumstances to Clachy
(his wife), who soon discovered the true state of affairs, and pulling off
Kutka's pantaloons, detached the heavily laden bag with great laugh-
ters."— (Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)
In the 14th century farce of " Le Muynier," the Miller has ab-
sorbed some of the popular ideas of his day, professed by certain phil-
osophers of the time. He believes that, at the moment of death, the
soul of a man escapes by the anus, and warns the priest to absolve him
from his sins, saying : " Mon ventre trop se determine. Helas ! le
ne scay que je face ; ostez vous."
The priest answers : " Ha ! sauf vostre grace ! "
Then the miller remarks : " Ostez-vous, car je me couchye."
The wife and the priest pull the sick man to the edge of the bed and
place him in such a position that if the doctrine of soul-departure by
the anus be true, they may witness the miller's final performance.
The phenomenon of rectal flatulence is now observed, when suddenly, to
the consternation of the wife and priest, a demon appears and placing
a sack over the dying miller's anus, catches the rectal gas and flies off
in sulphurous vapor. — (" Med. in the Middle Ages," Minor, p. 84,
translated from " Le Moyen Age Medical," by Dupuoy.)
It was generally believed in Europe that the eggs of the Basilisk or
MYTHS. 269
Cockatrice could ouly be hatched by a toad or by the heat of a manure-
pile. — (See "Melusine," Paris, January-February, 1890, p. 20.)
Ireland has been called the " Urinal of the Planets " from the con-
stant and copious rains which visit it. — (See Grose, "Diet, of Buckish
Slang," London, 1811.)
The Apaches have a myth, or story, the analogue of the " Fee-fo-
Fum " of our own childhood ; but the giant, instead of smelling the
blood of an Englishman, in the words given in Spanish, " huele la
cagada."
The Chinese myth concerning the wonderful digestive powers of the
" Mih " has its counterpart in the ancient belief that the same power
was possessed by the Ostrich.
" The Wangwana and Wanyumbo informed me . . . that if the ele-
phant observes the excrement of the rhinoceros unscattered, he waxes
furious, and proceeds instantly in search of the criminal, when woe
befall him if he is sulky, and disposed to battle for the proud privilege
of leaving his droppings as they fall. The elephant, in that case,
breaks off a heavy branch of a tree, or uproots a stout sapling like a
boat's mast, and belabors the unfortunate beast until he is glad to save
himself by hurried flight. For this reason, the natives say, the rhi-
noceros always turns round and thoroughly scatters what he has
dropped." — (" Through the Dark Continent," Henry M. Stanley, New
York, 1878, vol. i. p. 477.)
" In other myths, in the Brahmanas, Prajapati creates man from his
body, or rather the fluid of his body becomes a tortoise, the tortoise
becomes a man, etc." — (" Myth, Ritual, and Religion," Andrew Lang,
London, 1887, vol. ii. p. 248. See also under chapter on the Mistle-
toe, p. 99 of this volume.)
" Moffatt is astonished at the South African notion that the sea was
accidentally created by a girl." (" Myth, Ritual, and Religion,"
Lang, vol. i. p. 91.) Perhaps this tale belongs to our series of myths.
" The Encounter Bay people have another myth, which might have
been attributed by Deau Swift to the Yahoos, so foul an origin does it
attribute to mankind." — (Idem, Lang, vol. i. p. 170.)
"As the mythology and traditions of other heathen nations are more
or less immoral and obscene, so it is with these people." (" Nat.
Trib. of S. Australia," p. 200.) "Miugarope having retired upon a
natural occasion was highly pleased with the red color of her excre-
ment, which she began to mould into the form of a man, and tickling
it, it showed sigus of life and began to laugh." — (Idem, p. 201.)
270 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
The myth relating that differences in language sprung up after cer-
tain of the tribes had eaten the excrement of the goddess " Wurruri "
is given on p. 268 ; it has been recited in this volume on a previous
page. There was another god, named Nurunduri, of whom the story
is told that he once made water in a certain spot, " from which circum-
stance the place is called Kainjamin (to make water.) " — (Idem, p.
205.)
Among the Bilgula of British Columbia, there is a myth which re-
lates that a certain stump of a tree was a cannibal and had captured a
girl. Once, when he had gone out to fish for halibut, " he ordered his
uriuary vessel to call him if the girl should make an attempt to escape.
When she did so, the vessel cried, ' Rota-gota, Rota-gota, gota.' " —
(Personal letter from Dr. Franz Boas, Clark University, Worcester,
Mass. )
There is a riddle among the Kamtchatkans in regard to human feces :
" My father has numerous forms and dresses ; my mother is warm and
thin aud bears every day. Before I am born, I like cold and warmth,
but after I am born, only cold. In the cold I am strong, and in the
warmth, weak ; if cold, I am seen far ; if warm, I am smelled far." —
(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)
Among some of the Eskimo tribes the Raven is represented as talk-
ing to its own excrement and consulting it ; excrement occurs fre-
quently in their legends. — (Personal letter from Dr. Boas, as above.)
From the preceding paragraph we see that the Eskimo must have
formerly, even if they do not now, consulted excrement in their Divin-
ation ; the extract from Gilder, given under "Mortuary Ceremonies"
confirms this hypothesis.
The people of Kamtchatka believed that rain was the urine of
Billutschi, one of their gods, and of his genii ; but, after this god has
urinated enough, he puts on a new dress made in the form of a sack,
and provided with fringes of red seal hair, and variously colored strips
of leather. These represent the origin of the Rainbow.
The Kamtchatkau god Kutka was once pursued by enemies, but
saved himself " by ejecting from his bowels all kinds of berries, which
detained his pursuers."
The myths of the Kamtchatkans offer a parallel to the stories that
the presents of the devil always turned into dross. There is the story
of the god Kutka, upon whom, as we have seen, many tricks were
played. In one the food with which he supplied himself " turned into
peat, rotten wood, and piss." — (Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)
MYTHS. 271
" The Central Eskimo believe that rain is the urine of a deity." —
(" See " The Central Eskimo," Boas, p. 600.)
"Amber (as some thinke) is made of whale's dung." — (John Leo,
"Observ. of Africa," in Purchas, vol. ii. p. 772.)
Ambergris was anciently supposed to be the dung of the whale or
other monster of the sea. — (Mr. W. W. Rockhill.)
This view about the origin of amber was not credited by Avicenna.
"Ambram non esse stercus animalis maris." — (Vol. i. p. 273, blO.)
Iu the liturgy of the hill tribes of the Nilgherris, it is related —
" Mada a urine dans le feu."
" Mada a fiente a la face du soleil."
— (Quoted in " Les Primitifs," p. 245.)
Reclus, in the same work, gives a fragment of an Orphic song:
" Glorieux Jupiter, le plus grand des Olympiens, toi qui te plais dans
les crottins des brebis, qui aimes a t'enfoucer dans les tientes des chevaux
et des mulets." — (p. 246, quoting from " Fragmenta Orphei," edited
by Hermann.)
" The blessed Apostle Paul, being rapt in contemplation of divine
blissfulness, compares all the chief felicities of the earth, esteemiug
them (to use his own words) as ' stercora,' most filthy dung iu regard
of the joys he hoped for." — (Harington, "Ajax," p. 26.)
" He is truly wise that accounteth all earthly things as dung that
he may win Christ." — (Matt. xvii. 23, quoted in Thomas a Kempis,
cap. iv., "Of the Doctrine of Truth.")
" It was current among the small boys at school some thirty-five
years since, that were a man to make water whilst in connection with
a woman she would die." — (Personal letter from Prof. Frank Rede
Fowke, South Kensington Museum, London, England.)
The name of the city of Chicago has been traced by some philologist
to the Indian word for skunk ; and it is said to be " equal to bestiola
foeda mingens." The urine of this little animal was believed by some
of the Indian tribes to be capable of blinding the man iu whose eyes
it entered ; the animal itself was deified by the Aztecs under the name
of Tezcatlipoca.
For the interpretation given for the word " Chicago," see the work
" Indian Names of Places near the Great Lakes," by Captain Dwight
Kelton, U. S. Army, Chicago, Illinois, 1888.
272 SCATAL0G1C KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XL.
URINOSCOPY, OR DIAGNOSIS BY URINE.
rPHE examination of the urine and feces of the sick seems to have
-1- obtained in all parts of the world, and among all sorts of people ;
but in the earlier stages of human progress it was complicated with
ideas of divination and forecast, which would make it a religious
observance.
The health of a patient was shown by the condition of his urine. —
(Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 6.)
The Arabians used to bring to their doctors " the water of their sick
in phials." — (Burton, "Arabian Nights," vol. iv. p. 11.)
Iu the index to the Works of Avicenua there are two hundred and
seventy -five references to the appearance, etc., of the urine of the sick.
— (Translation of Avicenna made by Gerard of Cremona, edition of
Venice, 1595.)
" Apothecaries used to carry the water of their patients to the
physician." — (Fosbroke, " Encyclopaedia of Antiquities," vol. i. p. 526,
article " Urine.")
To determine whether a man had an affection of the lungs or liver,
some of his urine was cast upon wheat bran, which was then put aside
in a cool place ; if worms appeared, he was afflicted, etc. — (Beckherius,
" Med. Microcosmus," p. 62.)
From an examination of the feces and urine of the patient to deter-
mine his present state of health, and if possible to make a prognosis of
his future condition, was, in the minds of ignorant or half-educated
men merely the first step in the direction of determining the future of
the commonwealth by an inspection of the viscera and the excrement of
the victims whose blood smoked upon its altars. The Romans were
addicted to this mode of divination, which Schurig incorrectly styles
" Anthropomancy." He relates that Heliogabalus was especially fond
of this, and, indeed, he credits that voluptuary with its introduction,
and expresses his gratification that he met his deserts in being killed
URIXOSCOPY, OK DIAGNOSIS BY UKINE. 273
in a privy and left to die in ordure. The Saxons also were given to
this method of consulting the future. — (See " Chylologia," pp. 749,
750.)
" Uromantie. ff. (Med. et Divin.), mot forme de " ourou," urine, et
" manteia," divination, qui siguifie l'art de diviner par le moyen des
urines l'etat present d'uue rualadie, et d'en predire les evenements
futurs." — (" Encyc. ou Diet. Rais. des Sciences," etc., fol. Neufchatel,
1745, vol. xvii. p. 499, given in personal letter to Captain Bourke from
Professor Frank Rede Fowke, South Kensington Museum, London,
England.)
" Falstaff. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water ?
" Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water ; but for the
party that owed it, he might have more diseases than he knew for." — (Sink-
speare, " 2 King Henry IV.," i. 2.)
Sir Thomas More was possessed of great wit and a fine flow of
spirits, which even the approach of death could nut dispel. Upon
receiving notification that he had been condemned to death by hie
master, King Henry VIII., "he called for his urinal, and having made
water in it, he cast it and viewed it (as physicians do) a pretty while ;
at last he sware soberly that he saw nothing in that man's water hut
that he might live if it pleased the king." — (" Ajax," p. Gl.)
Thibetan doctors examine the urine of the patient ; then churn
it and listen to the noise made by the bubbles. — (Mr. W. W.
Rockhill.)
" How to vex her,
And make her cry so much that the physician,
If she fall sick upon it, shall want urine
To find the same by, and she, remediless,
Die in her heresy."
("Scornful Lady," v. 1, Beaumont and Fletcher.)
The people of Europe did not restrict their examinations to the
egestse of human beings ; they were equally careful to scrutinize every
day the droppiugs of the hounds, hawks, and other animals used in
the chase. — (See " Ajax.")
In the farce of "Master Pathelin " (a. d. 1480), the hero, "in his
ravings abuses the doctors ... for not understanding his urine. . . .
Charlatans especially exploited in this field of medicine, practising it
illegally in the country under the name of 'water-jugglers 'and 'water-
judges.' Such men still practise in Normandy and in certain northern
provinces of France." — (" Med. in the Middle Ages," Minor, p. 82.)
18
274 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" It is a common practice in these days, by a colourable deriuation
of supposed cunning from the vriue, to foretell casualities, and the
ordinary euents of life, conceptions of a woman with child, and
definite distinctions of the male and female in the womb." (Cotta,
"Short Discovery," London, 1612, p. 104. He goes on to say that
even as a mode of strict medical diagnosis, urinoscopy is not a certain
test, the body, in every disease, being more or less disordered, and this
disorder acting upon the urine.)
Montaigue tells the story of a gentleman who always kept for seven
or eight days his excrements, in different basins, in order to talk about
and show them. (Buckle, "Commonplace Book," vol. ii. p. 357,
quoting from Montaigne's " Essais," lib. iii. cap. 9, p. 600.)
Speaking of melancholy people, Burton says, "Their urine is most
part pale and low-colored, 'urina pauca, acris, biliosa ' (Arcteeus), and
not much in quantity. . . Their melancholy excrements, in some very
much, in others little." — (" Anatomy of Melancholy," vol. i. p. 268.)
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE EMOTIONS UPON THE EGEST.E.
Reciprocally, the influence exerted by the emotions over functional
disturbances has been made the subject of investigation by learned
commentators.
" Aristote, dans les Problemes Physiques, s'occupe des rapports qui
lient les impressions de l'ame aux fouctious intestinales. II recherche
pourquoi une frayeur subite et violente cause presque toujours et incon-
tinent la diarrhee." (Aule-Gelee, lib. six. c. 4, "Bib. Scatalog."
p. 66.)
Schurig gives numbers of instances of the power of the mind over
the act of alvine dejection ; evacuation may be caused by perturbation
of mind, by fear, by insomnia, by thunder, by anger, etc. See " Chy-
lologia," p. 701. In a preceding chapter Schurig narrates several
examples of people, principally women, who were never able to excite
nature to the act of evacuation except by artificial aids addressed to
some faculty of the mind, — imagination, laughing, etc.
Harington, in " Ajax," mentions the case of the Pope's Legate,
" who brought the last jubilee into France ; who, fearing the pages
who by custom bustle about him to divide his canopie, and suspecting
treason among them, suddenly laid you wot of in his breeches" (p. 16).
Dr. Fletcher, United States Army, has devoted considerable atten-
tion to this subject. He has kindly placed the results of his wide
range of reading at the disposal of the author of this volume.
URINOSCOPY, OR DIAGNOSIS BY URINE. 275
" The more you cry, the less you piss," — a vulgar saying of consid-
erable antiquity. This saying is founded upon a correct physiological
observation; an excess of one secretion results in a proportionate
diminution of others.
The great Greek scholar, Porson, indulged his wit by transliterating
into Hellenic characters the above homely saw, and thereby mystified
the learned pundits who were called upon to read it.1
" If love demands weeping, oh, why should I spare
Those floods which, of course, must be lavished elsewhere ? "
"And midst their bawling and their hissing,
They cried, to keep themselves from p g.
Finding their water would come out,
They thought it best, without dispute,
Bather than wet both breeks and thighs,
To let it bubble through their eyes."
(Homer Burlesqued, book xii.)
" I must call, from between thy thighs,
The urine back into thine eyes,
And make thee, when my tale thou hearest,
Channel thy cheeks with launt reversed."
(Musaruni Delicise, i. p. 110.)
" Launt " is an obsolete word, meaning urine. See Cotgrave'a
Dictionary.
" What if she whine, shed tears, and frown ?
Laugh at her folly, she '11 have done ;
Never dry up her tears with kisses,
The more she cries, the less she p s."
(Reflections, Moral, Critical, and Cosmical, part iii. p. 23, A. D. 1707.)
This expression is to be found also in old French, — perhaps is de-
rived from it : " Pleurez done, et chiez bien des yeux, vous en pissez
moins." — ("Moyen de Parvenir," a. d. 1610.)
" Juletta, how loath she was to talk, too, how she feared me !
I could now piss mine eyes out for mere anger."
(" The Pilgrim," iii. 4, Beaumont and Fletcher.)
The converse of the adage is illustrated in the following epigram on
a lady who shed her water at seeing the tragedy of " Cato : "
1 Eloise seems here to allude to the well-known Greek inscription on an ancient
marble, still to be seen in the Medicean gardens: "0e|uSp tv^pl 8sXts euirls."
Above it is an elegant figure in alto-relievo, supposed to be the representation of
the melting Niobe, — Eloise, en dishabille.
276 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Whilst maudlin chiefs deplore their Cato's fate,
Still, with dry eyes, the Tory Celia sate ;
But, though her pride forbade her eyes to flow,
The gushiug waters found a veut below.
Tho 'n secret, yet with copious streams she mourns,
Like twenty river-gods, with all their urns.
Let others screw on hypocritic face,
She shows her grief in a sincere? place ;
Here Nature reigns, and passion, void of art,
For this road leads directly to the heart."
(Nick Eowe. )
' But Sandwich, though with vast surprise,
He saw the monarch's weeping eyes,
Told him it would not be amiss, —
The more he cryed, the less he pissed."
(From " The New Foundling Hospital of Wit," vol. lv. p. 204.)
" ' Boh,' said to be the name of a Dauish general, who so terrified
his opponent, Foh, that he caused him to bewray himself." — (Grose,
Diet, of Buckish Slang, art. "Boh." See, also, in same volume, the
account of the Puritan preacher who met with the same accident in
his pulpit upon hearing that the royal troops were approaching, —
art. "Sh— t Sack.")
OEDUKE AND CEIXE IX MEDICINE. 277
XLI.
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE.
T^HE administration of urine as a curative opens the door to a flood
-"- of thought. Medicine, both in theory aud practice, even among
nations of the highest development and refinement, has not, until
within the present century, cleared its skirts of the superstitious hand-
prints of the dark ages. With tribes of a lower degree of culture it
is still subordinate to the incantations and exorcisms of the " medicine
man." It might not be going a step too far to assert that the science
of therapeutics, pure and simple, has not yet taken form among sav-
ages ; but to shorten discussion and avoid controversy, it will be as-
sumed here that such a science does exist, but in an extremely rude
and embryotic state ; aud to this can be referred all examples of the
introduction of urine or ordure in the materia medica, where the aid
of the "medicine man" does not seem to have been invoked, as in
the method employed for the eradication of dandruff by Mexicans,
Eskimo, and others, the Celtiberian dentifrice, etc.1
When the compilation and correlation of data bearing upon this sub-
ject was first begun, the exceeding importance of the pharmaceutical
division was manifest. In the opinion of the author, this part of the
investigation should have been assumed by a student possessed of a pre-
liminary training in medicine, and it was not until urged on by friendly
correspondents that he concluded, upon resuming his labors, to aug-
ment these references by citations from the more prominent writers
of ancient and modern times, who have demonstrated the importance
of the subject by devoting to its consideration not passing sentences
and scant allusions, but pregnant chapters and bulky volumes.
1 "We have in the folk-medicine, which still exists, the unwritten record of
the beginning of the practice of medicine and surgery. . . . The early history of
medical science, as of all other developments of culture, can be studied more nar-
rowly and more accurately in the folk-lore of this and other countries than some
students of modern science and exact modern records may think possible." —
("Folk-Medicine," William George Black, London, 1883, pp. 2, 3.)
278 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
By great good fortune he was enabled to make the fullest use of
the library of the Army Medical Museum, which, under the super-
vision of Surgeon John S. Billings, United States Army, has become
the finest special bibliotheque in the world.
From Surgeon Billings, and his able assistants, Doctors Fletcher
and Wise, were received, besides the courteous attentions which every
student has the right to expect, an intelligent and sympathetic co-
operation which cannot be too gratefully acknowledged.
In such an embarrassment of riches as now confronted him, he
exercised the right of drawing only upon the authorities which would
appeal to all critics as most entitled to prominence ; to have followed
any other course, and to have attempted to engraft all available mate-
rial, would have swollen this chapter to hundreds, perhaps thousands
of pages.
" Sprengel pense que Asclepiade, surnomme' Pharmacion, est le pre-
mier qui ait conseille les excrements humains ; mais il est probable
qu'il ne fit qu'eriger en preceptes ecrits un usage deja consacre' en
Orient, particulierement en Egypte." — (" Bib. Scat.," pp. 29, 30.)
The earliest writer whose works have been consulted was Hip-
pocrates, termed the " Father of Medicine," born 460 b. o. " He was a
member of the family of the Asclepiadse, . . . and a descendant of both
Esculapius and Hercules. He was born of a family of priest-physicians,
and was the first to throw superstition aside, and to base the practice
of medicine on the principles of inductive philosophy." — ( " Encyclo-
paedia Britannica."
Galen wrote a series of commentaries upon his writings. Medical
commentators are not in accord as to how many of the works at-
tributed to him are genuine ; but the editions of the accepted and the
suspected to be spurious are almost innumerable, and printed in every
language of Europe.
In the edition by Francis Adams (Sydenham Society, London, 1849),
there is no mention of the use of human or animal excreta in pharmacy.
But in another edition can be read that ass's dung was given to re-
strain excessive catamenial flow. — (Kuhn's editiou, Leipsig, 1829,
vol. i. p. 481.)
Etmuller says that Hippocrates prescribed hawk-dung to aid in the
expulsion of the foetus and as a remedy for sterility (vol. ii. p. 285).
The general use of excrementitious material in the medical practice of
Hippocrates' own day must be accepted from evidence deduced from
outside sources. For example, Aristophanes, who was his contemporary
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 279
(born 446 b. c, Encyc. Britan.), stigmatized all the medical fraternity
as " excrement-eaters ; " and Xeuocrates, another practitioner of the
same date, of whose writings, however, nothing has come down to us
beyond the meagre outline to be found in the commentaries of Galen,
made constant employment not only of human and animal excreta, but
of all the secretions and excretions as well. According to Appleton'a
Encyclopiedia, Xenocrates was born 396 B. c.
Schurig relates of Aristophanes that he called doctors " fecivores
. . . quod quidem adulatores fuerint quin excrementa Magnorum de-
gustare voluerint." He also says : " Quare de illo non inepte dixit
quidam, eum dignum fuisse Xenocrates Medico, qui excrementis variia
animalium omues morbos curare solitus erat." — (" Chylologia,"
p. 82.)
" Xenocrates, who flourished sixty years before Galen, had also a
good list of nasty prescriptions, for which the veil of a dead language
is required." (Saxon Leechdoms," lib. i. p. xviii.) These included
the urine of women and their catamenia.
Aristophanes called the physicians of his time crKaTo$ayov$, or excre-
ment-eaters. "Ce qui (itait plus malin que vrai, car les comperes en
faisaient manger a leurs clients plus qu'ils n'en mangeaient eux-memes."
— (" Bibliotheca Scatalogica.")
Human excrements, under the name of "botryon," were used by
jEschines of Athens, for the cure of quinsy. (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 10.)
jEschines lived between 389-317 B.C.
" Serapion of Alexandria flourished b. c. 278, forty years after the
date of Alexander the Great, and was one of the chiefs of the empiric
school. . . . He in epilepsy prescribed . . . dung of crocodiles." —
(" Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. xiv.)
The next in chronological order would be Pliny, from whom can be
extracted a veritable mine of information on this point ; then Diosco-
rides, who lived in the latter years of the first and the opening ones of
the second centuries of the Christian era ; and then Galen, born at
Pergamos, in Mysia, 130 a.d., "the most celebrated of ancient medi-
cal writers," and " appointed by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the
position of medical guardian of his son, the young prince, and later on
Emperor, Commodus." — (Encyc. Brit.)
The classical authorities will conclude with Sextus Placitus, from
whose works much of importance has been extracted.
Each author will be allowed to speak in his own words, and the
necessary deductions will be made afterwards ; only the remarks bear-
280 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
ing upon love-philters and child-birth have been assigned to the chap-
ters devoted to the treatment of those subjects, and this merely to
reduce the chances of repetition.
The following remedies are taken from Pliny, from the books and
chapters given opposite each case : —
" A plant that has been grown upon a dung-heap in a field is a very
efficacious remedy, taken in water, for quinsy." ■ — (Lib. xxiv. c. 110.)
"A plant upon which a dog has watered, torn up by the roots, and
not touched with iron, is a very speedy cure for sprains." — (Idem,
c. 111.)
" Camel's dung, reduced into ashes, and incorporat with oile, doth
curie and frizzle the hair of the head, and taken in drinke, as much as
a man may comprehend with three fingers, cureth the dyseuterie ; so
doth it also the falling sickness. Camel's piss, they say, is passing
good for Fullers to scour their cloth withall ; and the same healeth
any running sores which be bathed therein. It is well known that the
barbarous nations keep this stale of theirs until it be five years old,
and then a draught thereof to the quantity of one hermine is a good
laxative potion." — (Lib. xxviii. c. 8.)
Goat's dung good for sore eyes. — (Idem, c. 11.)
For " Skals in the Head " the Romans used " Bui's Urine." Stale
chamber-lye was also considered good. " The gall of buck goats, tem-
pered with Bui's stale, killeth lice." Dog-dung and goat-dung also
were prescribed. — (Idem, c. 11.)
Wolfs dung is mentioned as good for cataract. — (Idem, c. 11.)
Hen's dung, the white part, prescribed for the cure of poisonous
mushrooms ; also to cure flatulence (but in any living creature it causes
flatulence, says Pliny). Ashes of horse-dung fresh made and burned,
the urine of a wild boar, the green dung of an ass, are among the
medicaments mentioned for ear-ache (idem, c. 11) ; also " Urine of a
Bui or a Goat, or stale chamber lye made hotte ; " also " Calfe's Pisse,
Calfe's dung." Goat and horse dung were employed to drive away
snakes. — (Idem, c. 110.)
Human urine used in curing the bites of mad dogs. — (Idem,
c. 18.)
Pliny notices that the Greeks used the scrapings of the bodies of
athletes for emmenagogues, for uterine troubles, for sprains, muscular
rheumatism, etc. " We find authors of the very highest repute pro-
claiming aloud that the seminal fluid is a sovereign remedy for the
sting of the scorpion. In the case, too, of a woman afflicted with ster-
ORDCEE AND TJKKE IN MEDICDCE. 281
1 lit v they recommend the application of a pessary made of the fresh
excrement voided by an infant at the moment of its birth. . . . They
have even gone so far, too, as to scrape the very filth from off the
walls of the gymnasia, and to assert that this is possessed of certain
calorific properties. . . . The urine has been the subject not only of
numerous theories with authors, but of various religious observances
as well, its properties being classified under several distinctive heads ;
thus, for instance, the urine of eunuchs, they say, is highly beneficial as
a promoter of fruitfulness in females." He mentions the uriue of children
as a sovereign remedy for the poisonous secretion of the asp, which " spits
its venom into the eyes of human beings." Human uriue was used in
eye troubles, "albugo, films, and marks upon the eyes, white specks
upon the pupils, and maladies of the eyelids." It was also used in the
cure of burns, suppuration of the ears, as an emmenagogue, for sun-burn,
and for taking out ink-spots. " Male urine cured Gout." Urine cured
" eruptions on the bodies of infants, corrosive sores, runniug ulcers,
chaps upon the body, stings inflicted by serpents, ulcers of the head,
and cancerous sores of the generative organs. . . . Every person's
uriue is the best for his own case." — (Lib. xxviii. c. 18.)
The ashes of camel's dung were administered internally in epilepsy,
and also for dysentery. — (Idem, c. 27.)
Camel's urine applied to running sores ; barbarous nations kept it
for five years, and then used it as a purgative. — (Idem.)
The dung of the hippopotamus was used in fumigations, " for the
cure of a cold ague." — (Idem, c. 31.)
The urine of the once (ounce) " helpeth the strangury ;" it was also
taken internally for sore throat. — (Idem.)
Hyena-urine " is said to be useful in diseases of long standing "
(idem, c. 27) ; also given in drink for dysentery ; also applied in lini-
ments. — (Idem.)
Crocodile-dung used for eye troubles and for epilepsy ; used in form
of a pessary, as an emmenngogue. — (Lib. xxviii. c. 20.)
Lynx-urine for strangury and pains in the chest. — (Idem, c. 32.)
Goat-urine an antidote for bites of serpents. — (Idem, c. 42.)
Goat-dung an antidote for bites of serpents. — (Idem.)
Horse-dung, taken from a horse on pasture, an antidote for the bites
of serpents. — (Idem.)
Goat-dung for scorpion bites. — (Idem.)
Calves' dung for scorpion bites. — (Idem.)
She-goat's dung, bite of mad dog. — (Idem.)
282 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Badger-dung, cuckoo-dung, swallow-dung, taken internally, bite of
mad dog. — (Idem.)
Bull-dung, dandruff, applied locally. — (Idem, c. 46.)
Goat's dung, dandruff. — (Idem.)
"Wolf-dung for cataract. — (Idem, c. 47.)
She-goat's dung for ophthalmia and eye-troubles generally ; inter-
nally. — (Idem.)
Wild-boar urine, ear-troubles. — (Idem, c. 48.)
Ass-dung, deafness. — (Idem.)
Horse-dung, deafness ; also used in liniments. — (Idem.)
Bull's urine, deafness. — (Idem.)
She-goat's urine, deafness. — (Idem.)
Calf-dung, deafness. — (Idem.)
Calf-urine, deafness. — (Idem.)
Asses' urine, internally, in elephantiasis. — (Lib. xxviii. c. 30.)
Cat-dung, rubbed on the neck, to remove bones from the throat. —
(Idem, c. 51.)
Warm urine, cow-dung, and goat-dung applied to scrofulous sores.
— (Idem.)
Goat urine and dung for cricks in neck. — (Idem, c. 52.)
Hare-dung, internally, for cough. — (Idem, c. 53.)
Boar's dung, swine's dung, internally, pains in loins. — (Idem,
c. 56.)
Cow-dung, externally, sciatica. — (Idem, c. 56.)
Asses' dung, internally, affections of spleen. — (Idem, c. 57.)
Horse-duug, internally, bowel complaints. — (Idem, c. 58.)
Boar's or swine's dung, internally, dysentery. — (Idem, c. 59.)
Hare, ass, horse, or goat dung, internally, dysentery. — (Idem.)
Calf-dung, internally, flatulence. — (Idem.)
Hare-dung, internally, hernia. — (Idem.)
Ass-dung, internally, diseases of colon. — (Idem.)
Swine-dung, internally, diseases of colon. — (Idem.)
"Wild-boar's urine, internally, diseases of bladder ; also used internally
in treatment of urinary calculi. — (Idem, c. 60.)
Goat-dung, internally, urinary calculi. — (Idem.)
Goat-dung, externally, ulcers upon the generative organs. — (Idem.)
Wild-asses' urine, diseases of the genitalia, externally. — (Idem,
c. 61.)
Goat-urine, diseases of the genitalia, externally. — (Idem.)
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 283
Goat-dung, diseases of the genitalia, externally ; also, internally, for
gout. — (Idem.)
Cow-dung, internally, gout. — (Idem.)
Calf-dung, internally, gout. — (Idem.)
Goat-dung, sciatica, externally. — (Idem.)
Wild-boar's duug, swine's dung, chaps, corns, callosities. — (Idem,
c. 62.)
Asses' urine, applied to feet galled by travel. — (Idem.)
Calf-dung, burnt, applied to varicose veins. — (Idem.)
Wild-boar's urine, drunk, for epilepsy. — (Idem, c. 03.)
Horse's urine, drunk, for epilepsy; also for delirium. — (Idem.)
Asses' urine, externally, in paralysis. — (Idem.)
Dung of a new-born ass, internally, yellow jaundice. — (Idem, c. 64.)
Dung of a colt, internally, yellow jaundice. — (Idem.)
Goat-dung, externally, for broken bones. — (Idem, c. 65.)
Cow-dung, burnt, diluted with boys' urine, was rubbed on the toes
of the patient in quartan fevers. — (Idem, c. 66.)
Calf-dung, internally, in melancholia. — (Idem, c. 67.)
Swine's dung, internally, consumption. — (Idem.)
"Wild-boar's urine, internally, dropsy. — (Idem, c. 68.)
Cow-urine, internally, dropsy. — (Idem.)
Calf-urine, internally, dropsy. — (Idem.)
Bull-urine, internally, dropsy.1 — (Idem.)
Calf-dung, cow-dung, swine's dung, asses' dung, all applied exter-
nally for the cure of erysipelas and purulent eruptions. — (Idem,
c. 69.)
Wild-boar's dung, swine's dung, calf-dung, goat-dung, cow-dung, ex-
ternally, for sprains, indurations, and boils. — (Idem, c. 70.)
Wild-boar's dung, swine's dung, hare-dung, goat-dung, externally,
burns of all kinds. — (Idem, c. 71.)
Goat-dung, wild-boar's dung, externally, contusions, bruises, etc. —
(Idem, c. 72.)
The Emperor Nero, being of scrofulous tendency, drank the ashes of
wild-boar dung in water, to refresh himself. — (Idem.)
Asses' dung, burnt, externally, hemorrhages. — (Idem, c. 73.)
Calfs dung, burnt, externally, hemorrhages. — (Idem.)
Swine's dung, externally, to ulcers. — (Idem, c. 74.)
Goat-dung, externally, to ulcers. — (Idem.)
Swine's dung, fresh, externally, to wounds. — (Idem.)
1 Bull-urine was given to men, cow-urine to women.
2S4 SCATALOGIC BITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Horse's dung, cow-dung, fresh, externally, , to wounds. — (Idem.)
Asses' dung, externally, itch. — (Idem, c. 75.)
Cow-dung, externally, itch. — (Idem.)
Cow-dung, she-goat's dung, applied externally to extract thorns. —
(Hem, c. 76.)
Wild-boar's dung, or swine's dung, internally, in inflammation of
the uterus. — (Idem, c. 77.)
Asses' dung, in plaster or powder, or as a fumigation, for all uterine
troubles. — (Idem.)
Ox-dung as a fumigation, for falling of the womb. — (Idem, lib.
xxviii. c. 77.)
Cat's dung, as a pessary, for uterine ulcerations. — (Idem.)
" She-goat's urine, taken internally, and the dung applied topically,
will arrest uterine discharges, however much in excess." — (Idem.)
Swine's dung, as an injection, used to cure beasts of burden of void-
ing blood. — (Idem, c. 81.)
" The oxen in the Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the
abdomen, it is said, by swallowing human excrement." — (Idem.)
Dung of mice and the ashes of sheep-dung prescribed for dandruff.
The dung of a peacock stated to be of great value in medicine, but for
what not stated. — (Idem, c. 6.)
Sheep-dung, externally, in serpent bites. — (Idem, c. 15.)
" A most efficient remedy for wounds inflicted hy the asp," was for
"the person stung to drink his own urine." — (Idem, c. 18.)
" For the bite of all spiders . . . sheep's-dung, applied in vinegar."
— (Idem, c. 27.)
Poultry-dung, good as an application for the sting of the scorpion. —
(Idem, c. 29.)
"The dung of poultry, provided it is of a red color, is very useful,
applied with vinegar." Also for bite of a mad dog. — (Idem, c. 32.)
The urine of a mad dog was believed to be injurious to those people
who trod upon it, especially those persons with scrofulous sores. —
(Idem.)
" The proper remedy in such cases is to apply horse-dung." —
(Idem.)
" Whoever makes water where a dng has previously watered, will be
susceptible of numbness in the loins." — (Idem, c. 32.)
" Poultry -dung, but the white part only, ... is an excellent anti-
dote to the poison of fungi and mushrooms ; it is a cure also for
flatulence and suffocations, — a thing the more to be wondered at, see-
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 285
ing that if any living creature only tastes this dung, it is immediately
attacked with griping pains and flatulency." — (Idem, c. 33.)
"The dung of wood pigeons . . . au antidote to quicksilver." —
(Idem.)
Sheep-dung, mouse-dung, poultry-dung, applied externally in the
treatment of baldness or "alopcecia," so called from "alopex,"a fox,
" au animal very subject to the loss of its hair." — (Idem, c. 34.)
Mouse-dung, externally, " affections of the eyelids." — (Idem, c. 37.)
Poultry-dung as a liuiment for short-sighted persons. — (Idem,
c. 38.)
" Peacocks swallow their dung, it is said, as though they envied man
the various uses of it." — (Idem.)
Pigeon's dung, externally, fistula. — (Idem.)
Hawk-dung, turtle-dove dung, externally, "albugo." — (Idem.)
Pigeon's dung, externally, imposthumes of the parotid gland. —
(Lib. 29, 39.)
Mouse-dung, raven's dung, sparrow-dung. The ashes of these were
plugged into carious teeth, and used externally for all tooth troubles.
— (Lib. 30, c. 8.)
Mouse-dung, good to impart sweetness to sour breath (idem, c. 9) ;
also prescribed for the stone. — (Idem, c. 8.)
"The dung of lambs before they have begun to graze . . . alle-
viated . . . affections of the uvula and pains in the fauces. It should
be dried in the shade." — (Idem, c. 11.)
Pigeon's dung used as a gargle for sore throat (idem) ; used inter-
nally for quinsy (idem, c. 12) ; internally for dysentery (idem, c. 19) ;
and externally for the cure of " iliac passion." — (Idem, c. 20.)
Mouse-dung, rubbed on the abdomen, was considered to be a cure
for urinary calculi. — (Idem, c. 21.)
The flesh of a hedge-hog, killed before it had time to discharge its
urine upon its body, was a cure for strangury ; but, it would cause
strangury if able to urinate upon itself before death. — (Idem, c. 21.)
Dove-dung, internally, for urinary calculi. — (Idem.)
Swallow-dung, as a suppository and purgative. — (Idem.)
Dog-dung, externally, fissure in ano. — (Idem, c. 22.)
Mouse-dung. — (Idem.)
Pigeon's dung, externally, in fissure in ano. — (Idem.)
Mouse-dung and pigeon's-dung, externally, for tumors. — (Idem.)
Sheep and poultry dung, externally, in gout. — (Idem.)
Ring-dove-dung, liniment for pains in the joints. — (Idem, c. 23.)
286 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
The .ashes of pigeon's or of poultry dung, externally, for excoriations
of the feet. — (Idem, c. 25.)
Mule-urine, sheep and poultry dung, externally, for corns on feet. —
(Idem.)
Dog-urine, sheep and poultry dung, externally, for warts of all kinds.
— (Idem.)
Swallow-dung, internally, cure of fevers. — (Idem, c. 30.)
Pigeon's, poultry, and sheep dung, externally, boils and carbuncles.
— (Idem, caps. 33, 34.)
Sheep-dung, externally, burns. — (Idem, c. 35.)
Pigeon's duug, snuff made of for brain hemorrhage. — (Idem, c. 38.)
Horse-dung, externally, hemorrhages from wounds. — (Idem.)
Sheep-dung, ashes of, externally, carcinoma. — (Idem, c. 39.)
Sheep-dung, externally, wounds and fistulas. — (Idem.)
Mouse-dung, cautery. — (Idem.)
Weasel's duug, ashes of, cautery. — (Idem.)
Pigeou's-dung, ashes of, cautery. — (Idem.)
Poultry-dung and pigeon's dung, externally, old cicatrices. — (Idem,
c. 40.)
Sheep's dung, externally, female complaints. — (Idem, c. 43.)
Mouse-dung, externally, swelled breasts. — (Idem.)
EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF DIOSCORIDES.
Dioscorides devotes a chapter to the medicinal values of different
ordures ; a condensation only of the translation need be given, since
the original is inserted.
The fresh dung of domestic cattle was considered good for inflamed
wounds ; for pains at extremity of spine ; and, when made into a plas-
ter with oil, it dissolved glandular and scrofulous swellings and tumors.
The dung of bulls was a remedy for falling of the womb ; when drunk
with wine, was frequently given as a remedy in epilepsy ; used also in
the cure of suppressed menstruation and to expel the fetus in retarded
delivery; administered in menstrual hemorrhages; for the alleviation
of gout in the feet, serpent bites, erysipelas, etc. Goat and sheep
dung was used for the same purposes.
Dried goat-dung, drunk in wine, checked hemorrhages, as did that
of asses and horses. The dung of grass-fed kine taken in wine for
scorpion bites.
Dove and poultry dung given to break up the old sores and scrofu-
lous swellings.
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 287
Hen-dung believed to be almost a specific against the effects of
poisonous mushrooms ; it was to be drunk in wine.
Stork-dung was another remedy for epilepsy ; it was also to be drunk
in wine.
Vulture-dung expelled the foetus ; mouse-dung expelled calculi.
Hen-dung, especially that laid during the dog-days, was good for
dysentery.
Fresh human ordure was applied to inflamed wounds, and as a plas-
ter in angina ; dog-dung was also used in such cases.
Crocodile-excrement was in high repute as a cosmetic. (See " Cos-
metics.") Purchasers were warned that it was frequently adulterated
with the excrement of starlings fed on rice.
The urine of the patient himself should be drunk in cases of serpent
bites, poisons from drugs, bites of scorpions, mad dogs, etc. For old
ulcers, cicatrices, " lepras," an excellent application ; also for ulcerations
in the genitalia, sores in the ears, etc.
The urine of an undefiled boy was highly commended for various
purposes, especially when triturated with honey in a brass mortar.
The " sediment of urine " (see " Mangeurs de Blanc ") was regarded
as of great value in erysipelas. Bull's urine was given for the cure of
ulcerated ears.
Goat urine expelled stone from the bladder ; likewise, beneficial in
dropsy, if drunk daily.
Asses' urine cured mania.
" Dioscoride, lib. ii. cap. 73, et ses cornmentateurs, P. Andr. Mathicle,
fol. 238, et J. Coruarius, comment, cap. 69, fol. m. 134, permettent
l'usage des stercoraria pour les paysans, et quand on n'a rien de mieux
sous la main, mais ils Finterdisent pour les habitants des villes et les
personnages honorati alicujus estimations. Outre son grand ouvrage,
de maitre medical on attribue gc;neralement a Dioscoride un traite1
designe" sous le titre de Euporista, ou des remedes faciles a procurer."
(This was published at Strasbourg and again at Frankfort in 1565 and
1598, respectively, from the original Greek.) "Dans l'Euporista,
Dioscoride cherche a etablir que les remedes indigenes valent souvent
mieux que ceux qu'on fait veuir a grands frais des pays eloignes, et, a
ce titre, il mentionne le stercua comme offrant de curieuses ressources."
— (" Bib. Scatalogica," p. 74.)
" Stercus bovis armentalis recens impositum, inflammationem ex
vulneribus lenit ; foliis autem involutum in cineris calentis calefit,
atque ita imponuntur. Simili modo fotu applicitum coxendicis cruci-
283 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
atus mitigat. Ex aceto vero cataplasmatis vice impositum duritias,
strumas et glaudarurn turnores discutit. Speciatitn vero bovis mas-
culi fiiuus prolapsum uterutn suffitu restituit, accensi quoque nidore
culices abiguntur. Cuprarum praesertim in montibus degentium,
stercus ex vino bibitum regium ruorbuni emeudat, cum aromatibus
vero potum menses ciet et foetus ejiciet.
" Siccum, tritumque et cum turre in vellerse appositum, fluxum muli-
ebrem cohibet aliasque sanguinis eruptiones ex aceto compescit. Ustum
ac cum aceto aut oxymelite illitum calvitiei medetur. Cum axuugia
vero cataplasmata adbibitum podagracis opitulatur. Decoctum in
aceto, aut vino imponitur ad serpeutiae morsum, berpctas, erysipelata,
parotides. Quiu et iscbiadicis ustis eorum ope administratur utiliter
banc in modum ; in eo cavo, quod est inter pollicem et indicem qua
parte pollex committitur, lans oleo imbuta prius substernitur, ac dein
singulatim imponuntur fimi caprini ferventes pilulae, donee sensus per
brachium ad coxeudieem perveuiat doloremque mitiget atque adustis
talis arabica appellatur.
"At vero stercus ovillum ex aceto impositum sanat epinyctidas, cla-
vos, verrucas, quae tbymi vocantur, et quae pensiles sunt . . . Apri-
num autem aridum in aqua aut vino potum, sanguinis rejectionem
sistit ac diuturnum sedat lateris dolorem. Sed ad rapta convulsaque,
ex aceto bibitur ; luxatis vero exceptum curato rosaceo medetur.
Porro tarn asinorum quam equorum fimum, sive crudum sive crema-
tum, addito aceto, sanguinis eruptioues cobibet. Armentinorum vero,
qui herba pascuntur, siccum stercus vino imbutum et bibitum a scor-
pione ictis magnopere auxiliatur.
" Columbiuum quoniam vehementer calefacit ac urit, farinse crudae
admiscetur, et ex aceto quidem strumas discutit. Carbunculos vero
emarginat cum melle, lini seminae, et oleo tritum, nee non ambustis
quoque medetur. Gallinaceum eadem, sed mal ignis, praestat. Speci-
atim tameu contra letales fongos et colicos dolores confert, si ex aceto
aut vino bibatur. Ciconae vero fimium ex aqua potum comitialibus
prodesse creditur. Vulturis suffumigatum fcetum excutere traditur.
Murium cum aceto tritum illitumque calvitiei medetur, cum turre
vero et mulso potum calculos expellit. Sed et subditte infantibus
muscerdae alvum ad dejectionem lacessunt. Caninum stercus, quod
per caniculae ardores exceptum fuerit, aridum cum vino aut aqua po-
tum, alvum cobibet. Ad bumanum recens cataplasmatis vice imposi-
tum vulnera ab inflammatione vindicat, simul vero glutinat. Siccum
autem cum melle perunctum anginosos auxiliari traditur.
OBDUEE AND UEINE IN MEDICINE. 289
" Stercus crocodilis terrestris mulieribus coufert ad colorem facei
nitoremque produeenduiu.
" Optimum vcro quod candidissimum et (Habile amyli modo leve in
humore statim eliquiescit, atque dum teritur, subacidum est et fer-
mentum redolet. Sunt qui id vendant adulterant fimo non dissimili
sturnorum quos oryza paverunt. Alii amylum aut cimoliam subigunt,
et adesoito, colore, per rarum cribrum, paullatim percolant et siccant,
ut vermiculorum specie loco genuini vendant. Ceterum humanum
stercus siccum melle subactum, et gutturi mipositum sicut et eani-
num, anginosis opitidari iu arcanis, aut turpibus etiam inveniunt." —
(Dioscorides, "Materia Medica," Latin-Greek edit, of Kuhn, Leipsig,
1829, vol. i., pp. 222 et seq.)
" Humanam urinam suum cnique bibere prodest contra viperre
morsus et letalia pharmaca, hydropemque incipientem ; prodest etiam
ea fovere eehinorum marinorum scorpionis itidern marini draconisque
ictus. Canina rabidi canis morsibus perfundendis idouea est ; lepras
quoque et pruritus, nitro addito, exterit. Vetus etiam achoras, fur-
fures, scabiem, fervidasque eruptiones potentius extergit, quin et
ulcera depascentia, etiam genitalium coarcet. Purulentis quoque
auribus infusa pus condensat, et in malicordio cocta animalcnla (qua?
forte in aures irrepsirent) ejicit. Pueri innocentis absorta urina an-
helantibus coufert, cocta vero in aereo vaso cum melle cicatrices albu-
gines et caligines emendat.
." Quin etiam ex ea et aere cyprio idoneum auro ferruminando glutea
paratur. Sedimentum urina? erysipelata illita mitigat. Fervefactum
cum cyprino appositumque uteri dolorem demnlcet ex utero, strnngu-
lata levat, palpebras deterget et oculorum cicatrices expurgat. Tauri-
num lotium cum myrrha tritum et instillatum dolores aurium lenit.
" Aprinum iisdem viribus piwditum est sed peculiariter vesica? cal-
culos potu commimtit et expellit. Caprinum traditur ad bydropem
inter cutem cum spica nardi binisque aquae cyathis quotidie bibiti
urinas ducere et alvum instillatum, vero aurium doloribus mederi.
Asiniuo denique ferunt nephreticos sanari." — (Dioscorides, idem, vol. i.
pp. 227 et seq.)
On p. 228 Dioscorides speaks of the use of a medicine known as
"lynx urine," but which he says was a variety of amber.
THE VIEWS OF GALEN.
Galen disapproved of the pharmaceutical use of human ordure on
account of its abominable smell, but he assented to the employment
19
290 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
of that of domestic cattle, goats, crocodiles, and dogs ; he makes
known, moreover, that human ordure was taken internally, as a med-
cine, by very many persons.
" De Copro, Stercore, Copros, sive Copron, sive Apoptema, apellari
velis perinde est. Scito autem hauc substantiam vim habere vel max-
ime digerentem. Verum stercus humanum ob fcetorem abominandum
est, at bnbulnm, caprinum, crocodilorum terrestrium, et canum, ubi in
ossibus duntaxat vescuntur neque graviter olet, et multa experientia
non tautum nobis, sed et aliis medicis me natu majoribus comprobatum
est. Siquidem Asclepiades cui cognomentum erat Pharmaceon, et alia
omnia medicamenta collegit, ut multos impleret libros, et stercore ad
multos ssepe affectus utitur non modo medicamentis, quae focis impo-
nuntur commiscens, sed iis quoque quae intro in os sumuntur." —
(Galeni Claudii, "Opera Omnia," edit, of Dr. Carl Gottleib Kuhn,
Leipsig, 1826, vol. xii., pp. 290, 291.)
Dog-dung, especially of an animal "sola ossa cani edenda exhibens
duobus continuo diebns, ex quibus durum, candidum, ac minime fceto-
rum stercus proveniebat." Such dog-dung was administered in angina,
dysentery, inveterate ulcers, etc., in milk or other convenient men-
struum."— (Idem, vol. xii. p. 291.)
The urine of boys was drunk by patients suffering from the plague
in Syria, but the year is not given. - — (See idem, vol. xii. p. 285.)
Galen did not believe that calculi had the slightest value for effecting
a reduction of calculi. — (Idem, lib. xii. p. 290.)
Galen could not bring himself to agree with Xenocrates, who recom-
mended the internal and external employment of sweat, urine, cata-
menial fluid, and ear-wax in medicine. (Idem, lib. xii. p. 249.) "At
potis sudoris aut urinee aut mensium mulieris abominanda detestauda-
que est, atque horum in primis stercus, quod tamen scribit Xenocrates,
si oris ac gutturis partibus inungatur et in ventrem devoretur, quid
prsestare valeat. — Scripsit etiam de aurium sordis devorandis. At ego
ne has quidem morbo deinceps liber degerem. Atque his etiam magis
abominandum puto stercus. Estque probrum gravius homini modesto
audire stercorivorum quam fellatorum aut cinaedum.
He shows that it was used by some physicians in " psoras," and in
" lepras," in the washing of ulcers, affections of the ears and genitalia,
as an embrocation and a liniment for scald and scabby head, and by
rustics in the alleviation of the pains of sore feet. (Galen, lib. xii.
p. 285 et seq.)
Galen instances the ordure of a boy, dried, mixed with Attic honey,
ORDURE AND TJRIXE I.N* MEDICINE. 291
given as a cure for consumption. " Stercus pueri siccum cum melle
Attico ad laevorem trituni." (Idem, lib. xii. p. 294.) The boy was
to be fed on vegetables and well-cooked bread, leavened, made with a
little salt, in a small oven (Clibanus, Dutch oven ?). The boy was also
to be temperate in drink, using only a small quantity of good wine. —
(Idem, lib. xii. p. 294.)
Wolf-dung was given in drink, in the intervals between the parox-
ysms of colic ; the white excrement ejected after eating bones was re-
garded as the stronger, and especially that which had not touched the
ground, — a thing not difficult to find, because he says the wolf has
the same disposition as the dog ; that is, to eject its urine and ordure
upon rocks, stones, thorns, and bushes, whenever possible, etc. —
(Galen, " Opera Omnia," Kuhn's edition, lib. xii. pp. 295-297.)
Goat-dung was useful in the reduction of inveterate hard tumors
and boils. Galen used it with great success when made into a cata-
plasm with barley meal. " We also use it," he adds, " in dropsy "
(" aquaru inter cutem "). It was also employed in " lepras," "psoras,"
and other skin affections. It was applied as a plaster in tumors and
other swellings and in abscesses of the ear ; also in bites of vipers
and other wild beasts ("aliarum bestiarum"). It was drunk in wine
as a cure for the yellow jaundice, and applied as a suppository, mixed
with incense, in uterine hemorrhages. But Galen thought that the
internal employment at least of such disgusting curatives is of ques-
tionable expediency, especially when more agreeable remedies may
be available. This objection would, of course, apply with special force
in cities, although he admits that travellers, country people, and those
suffering from poison, must use the first thing within reach (vol. xii.
p. 299). Bull dung was regarded by Galen as of value in the cure of
the stings of bees and wasps (see notes on the same subject taken in
the State of New Jersey) . In Mysia, a country near the Hellespont,
physicians ordered it to be smeared on the skins of dropsical patients
in the sun. The same treatment was supposed to help consumptive
patients, if the dung was that of grass-fed stock ; but he repeats that
such remedies are better adapted for rustics than for the inhabitants
of cities (lib. xii. p. 301).
Sheep-dung was used for all kinds of warty and excrescential growths
externally, either raw or burnt, and in the latter case was often mixed
with, or superseded by, goat-dung (lib. xii. p. 302).
The dung of wild doves was preferred to the excrement of the do-
mestic pigeon ; administered internally, generally mixed with the seed
292 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
of the nasturtium, in all inveterate pains affecting sides, shoulders,
skull, loins, kidneys, in vertigo, head-aches, etc. It was used just as
frequently in cities as in rural communities (lib. xii. p. 302).
Mouse-dung seems to have been extensively used in medical prac-
tice, although Galen ridicules the fact, and does not mention the pur-
poses of its employment (lib. xii. p. 307).
The dung of barn-yard fowl was used for the same purposes as dove-
dung. Some people thought that the dung was more efficacious if
dropped by a fowl that had been stuffed with mushrooms. Galen here
takes occasion to remark that all animals must differ in the character
of their excreta as they do in their food ; the same animal, by a change
of habitat, and consequent change of food, must cause a perceptible
variation in the qualities of its excrement (lib. xii. p. 304). Galen
flatly expresses his disbelief in the medicinal value of the excrement of
the goose, stork, eagle, or hawk, although he admits that they were
used internally by many practitioners of good standing, in difficulties
of the respiratory organs ; but he says these same authorities are wont
to extol the merits, in the treatment of the same diseases, of such ab-
surd remedies as night-owl's blood, human urine, etc. — (Galen, lib. 12,
p. 305.)
Lucian, in his treatise upon remedies for the cure of gout (" trago-
podagra "), makes mention in several places of excrementitious remedies,
— as, for example, " dung of mountain-goat and man,"
" ADd Bones, and Skin, and Fat, and Blood, and Dung,
Marrow, Milk, Urine, to the fight are brought."
— (Edition of William Tooke, F. K. S., London, 1820, vol. i. p. 741.)
SEXTUS PLACITUS.
This author is supposed to have lived in the beginning of the fourth
century after Christ.
The edition of his work, " De Medicamentis ex Animalibus," was
printed in Lyons, in 1537. The pages are not numbered, and the
citations are consequently by chapter.
Goat-urine was given as a drink to dropsical patients (" De Capro ").
This urine was also drunk by women to relieve suppression of the
menses.
For inflammation of the joints, goat-dung was dried and applied as a
fine powder ; for colic, a fomentation of hot goat-dung was applied to
the abdomen ; for serpent bites it was applied as a plaster, and also
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 293
ilruuk in some convenient liquor. For tumors goat-dung was to be
applied externally.
For ear troubles goat-urine was applied as a lotion. " Ad aures
niraus bene audieutium, Apri lotiuui iu nitro repositum tepefactum,
auribus instillatur audire facit " (" De Apro ").
For burns, whether by water or fire, burnt cow-dung was to be
sprinkled on. " Ad combusturam sive ab aqua, sive ab igne factam,
Taurinus fimus combustus et aspersus sanat" (" De Tauro ").
" Ad profluvium mulierum, Taurus ibicuucque pastus fuerit folia
ulrui arboris de fimo ipsius facias siccari et terre in pollinem tenuissi-
mum, rnitte ipsum in carbones in quodam testo, et depouas in vaso et
sedeat mulier quae patitur eucatesma diligeuter co-operta (well cov-
ered up), et sanabitur ut mireris " (" De Tauro ").
Testo means the " lid of a pot ; " encatesma means a " sitting-bath ; "
and the sense seems to be that the woman was to take the dung of a
bull which had been eating the leaves of an elm-tree, dry, reduce to
fine powder, throw on hot coals on the lid of a pot, and let the woman
sit on this, well covered up, and have a steam-bath.
For all kinds of tumors, as well as fcr every kind of head-ache,
the dung of elephants was applied externally. " De Elephantis.")
He makes no mention of the use of asses' dung, but strongly recom-
mends the use of the excrement of the horse. " Ad sanguinem e
naribus profluentem, equi stercus siccum et aspersum, sanguinem
fluentem retinet, maxime naribus suffumigatum." He also recom-
mends the use of horse-dung externally in the treatment of ear-
ache, and for retention of the menses internally. " Ad auriiim dolorem,
stercus equi siccum et rosaceo succo liquefactum et collatum, auribus
instillatur aurium dolorem perfecte tollit. . . . Ad ventrem nou fluen-
tem, nimiumque tumescentem, Equi stercus aqua liquefactum, et per-
colatum, postea bibitum, mox faciet egressum." — (" De Equo.")
Cat-dung was used in the eradication of dandruff and of scald
in the head ; for excessive after-birth hemorrhages in the form of fumi-
gation or bath. For the relief of a person who had swallowed a bone
or thorn, his fauces were rubbed with cat-dung. For the relief of the
quartan ague, hang cat-dung and cow horn or hoof to the patient's
arm ; after the seventh attack the fever will leave him for good. —
(Idem. See under " "Witchcraft," extract from Etmuller, p. 267.)
Vulture-dung, mixed with the white dung of dog, cured dropsy and
palsy, especially if from a vulture which had lived on human flesh ; to
be taken internally. — (" De Vulture.")
294 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
The urine of a virgin boy or girl was an invaluable application for
affections of the eyes ; also for stings of bees, wasps, and other in-
sects. As a cure for elephantiasis, the urine of boys was to be drunk
freely. "Ad elephantiam puerorum, pueri lotiurn si puer biberit
liberaliter."
The crust from human urine was useful in burns and in bites of mad
dogs. (Idem. See notes on the Parisian " Mangeurs du blanc") For
cancers man's ordure was burnt and sprinkled over the sore places ; for
tertian fevers, it had to be that of the patient himself; and to be held
in the left hand while burning, then placed in a rag, and tied to his
left arm before the hour of the recurrence of the fever. " Ad tertianas,
ipsius segri stercus sinistra manu sublatum comburunt et in siuistro
brachio ante horam accessionis suspenduut." — (" De Puello et Puella
Virgine.")
Hawk-dung, boiled in oil, made an excellent application for sore
eyes. " De Accipitro.") Crow-dung was given to children to cure
coughs, and was placed in carious teeth to cure tooth-ache. — (" De
Corvi.")
Dove-dung was applied externally to tumors. — ("De Columba.")
"SAXON LEECHDOMS."
In " Saxon Leechdoms," is arranged the medical lore of the early
centuries of the Saxon occupancy and conquest of England.
" Alexander of Tralles (a. d. 550) . . . guarantees, of his own ex-
perience and the approval of almost all the best doctors, dung of a
wolf with bits of bone in it " for colic. — ("Saxon Leechdoms," lib. i.
c. 18.)
" Bull's dung was good for dropsical men ; cow's dung for women "
(vol. i. c. 12, quoting Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 68).
Swine-dung was applied to warts (vol. i. p. 101).
" For bite of any serpent, melt goat's grease and her turd and wax,
and mingle together ; work it up, so that a man may swallow it whole "
(vol. i. p. 355, quoting Sextus Flacitus).
For dropsy, " Let him drink buck's mie . . . best is the mie.
. . . For sore of ears, apply goat's mie to the ear. . . . Against
churnels, mingle a goat's turd with honey . . . smear therewith."
"For thigh pains," "for sore joints," "for cancer," "against swell-
ings," "tugging of sinews," "carbuncle," " smear with- goat's dung"
(vol. i. pp. 355, 357).
" For every sore ... let one drink bull's urine in hot water ; soon
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 295
it healeth. . . . For a breach or fracture . . . lay bull's dung warm
ou the breach. . . . For waters burning or fires, burn bull's dung
and shed thereon." (Idem, p. 369.) The word "shed" as here
employed means to urinate, apparently-.
" For swerecothe or quinsy," the Saxons used an external applica-
tion of the white " thost " or dung of a dog which had been gnawing a
bone before defecation (vol. ii. p. 49).
"Against shoulder pains, mingle a tord of an old swiue." — (Idem,
p. 63.)
" If a sinew shrank . . . take a she-goat's tord " (p. 69).
" Against swelling, take goat's treadles sodden in sharp vinegar "
(p. 73).
For a leper, boil in urine hornbeam, elder, and other barks and
roots. — (Idem, p. 79.)
" A wound salve for lung diseases," — of this the dung of goose was
an important ingredient (p. 93).
"A salve for every wound. . . . Collect cow-dung, cow-stale, work
up a large kettle full into a batter, as a man worketh soap, then take
apple-tree rind " and other rinds mentioned, and make a lotion (p. 99).
For felons, leg diseases, and erysipelas, calf and bullock dungs were
applied as a fomentation (p. 101).
"For a dew worm, some take warm, thin ordure of man, they bind
it on for the space of a night " (vol. ii. p. 125).
" Against a burn, work a salve ; take goate turd," etc. — (Idem,
p. 131.)
" For a horse's leprosy . . . take piss, heat it with stones, wash
the horse with the piss so hot." — (Idem, p. 157.)
" If there be mist before the eyes, take a child's urine and virgin
honey ; mingle together. . . . Smear the eyes therewith on the in-
side " (vol. ii. p. 309).
"For joint pain . . . take dove's dung and a goat's turd," exter-
nally (vol. ii. p. 323).
" For warts . . . take hound's mie and a mouse's blood," exter-
nally. — (Idem, p. 323.)
" Against caucer . . . take a man's dung, dry it thoroughly, rub
to dust, apply it. If with this thou were not able to cure him, thou
mayst never do it by any means." — (Idem, p. 329.)
" Si muliebra nimis fluunt . . . take a fresh horse's tord, lay it on
hot glades, make it reek strongly between the thighs, up under the
raiment, that the woman may sweat much." — (Idem, pp. 332, 333.)
296 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
"A smearing for a penetrating worm" was made with "two buckets
of bullock's mie," among many other ingredients. — (Idem, p. 333.)
" If a thorn or a reed prick a man in the foot, and will not be gone,
let him take a fresh goose tord and green yarrow . . . paste them on
the wound." — (Idem, p. 337.)
" Against a penetrating worm . . . smear with thy spittle . . .
and bathe with hot cow-stale '' (vol. iii. p. 11).
" Against a warty eruption. . . . Warm and apply the sharn or
dung of a calf or of an old ox." — (Idem, p. 45.)
"An asses tord was recommended to be applied to weak eyes." —
(Idem, p. 99.)
AVICENNA.
A careful examination of a Latin edition of " Averrhoes," Lyons,
1537, discovered nothing in regard to the medicinal use of human or
animal egestse.
But, on the contrary, the works of Avicenna teem with such refer-
ences ; there is hardly a page of the index to his portly volumes that
does not contain mention of stercoraceous remedies. Out of all this
abundance these selections will show that the Arabian physicians made
of such medicaments the same free use as their older brethren of the
subverted Roman empire: " Matricem mundant," "Urina" (vol. i.
p. 330, a 38) ; " Sanguinem sistunt," " Urina hominis cum cinere
vitis" (vol. i. p. 466, a 26) ; " Scabei," " Scabiei ulcerosa conferunt,"
"Urina" (vol. i. p. 330, a 8); "Sciatica conferunt," " Stercus vac-
carum et Caprarum cum adipe porci " (vol. i. p. 390, a 5) ; for scrof-
ula "Stercus Caprarum" (vol. i. p. 388, a 11) ; " Lentigiuibus confer-
unt," "stercus lupi" (vol. i. p. 387, b66); " Erysipelati conferunt,"
"fex urinse hominis " (vol. i. p. 330, all); while for the same disease,
as well as for " excoriationi conferunt " were prescribed " stercus cameli
et pecudis" (vol. i. p. 388, all); "Urinee fex," (idem, vol. i. p. 408,
a 39) ; " Lapidi conferunt," " Stercus muris cum thure " (vol. i. p. 390,
b 2) ; again (vol. i. p. 361, a 60) ; " urina porci " (vol. i. p. 408, a 66).
Lizard-dung an ingredient in a collyrium (vol. ii. p. 322, a 34).
" Matricis dolores conferunt," " urina hominis decocta cum porris "
(vol. i. p. 408, b 1). Goat-dung " Matrici fluxui conferunt," " stercus
caprarum siccum " (vol. i. p. 388, a 15, and vol. i. p. 390, a 50).
For epilepsy, one of the remedies was " stercus cameli " (vol. i. p.
338, a 6). Yellow jaundice, "Icteritias conferunt," "urina mulieris
cum aqua mellis " (vol. i. p. 330, a 31) ; for burns, "Stercus capra-
rum et ovium cum aceto" (vol. i. p. 389, b 62). Another remedy
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 297
for burns was, " Stercus columbaruni cum melle et semine lini " (vol.
i. p. 389, b 65).
"Impetigiue couferuut," "urina " (vol. i. p. 330, a 10) ; for ulcers,
" Stercus cameli et pecudis " (vol. i. p. 3S8, a 9) ; also for the same,
"stercus canis ab ossibus cum mellis " (vol. i. p. 390, a 2) ; also "uriua
asini et homiuis " (vol. i. p. 408, a 31) ; human uriue again pre-
scribed for ulcers, in vol. i. p. 231, 646.
" Stercoris muris decoctio " alleviated difficulty in urination (vol. i.
p. 361, a 63). "Impetigiue conferuut," "stercus columbarum et
turdorum " (vol. i. p. 390 a 1).
As a cure for the wounds of Armenian arrows (9, " De sagittis Ar-
menis ") Avicenna says : " Jam parvenit ad me quod potus stercoris
humaui est theriaca ad illud " (vol. i. p. 305, a 5). ("Theriaca"
meaus literary a remedy for the bites of serpents and wild beasts, but
in the present case it is used to mean a panacea.)
For poisonous bites, "ad morsum viperarum et omnium venenosorum
animalium" "etiterum qua? bonae sunt" (" Mediciua? " understood)
"est stercus caprinum commixtum in vino et dotur in potu " (vol. ii.
p. 227, b36) ; "Urina hominis " also prescribed for the same in the
same paragraph. The dung of goats, mixed with pepper and cinna-
mon, a provocative of the menses (vol. i. p. 390, a 49).
The dung of mice prescribed internally for the cure of running from
the ears, to aid in the expulsion of the after-birth, calculus, poison of
venomous reptiles, etc. (vol. i. pp. 3G1, a 58).
" Matrici fluxui conferunt," "stercus caprarum siccum" (vol. i. p.
388, a 15, and vol. i. pp. 390, a 50).
"Spasma conferunt," "Uriua" (vol. i. p. 408, a 40) ; "Splenis
duritiei conferunt," "Stercus caprarum" (vol. i. p. 30, a 50.)
"Ano conferunt," "Urina infantium lactentium" (vol. i. p. 408,
a 55.)
" Stercus pecudis adustum cum aceto " was prescribed for the bite
of a mad dog (vol. i. pp. 3S8, a 21) ; " Urina cum nitro " (idem, vol. i.
p. 408, b 7) , "Canis stercus pro angina? curatioue " (vol. i. p. 616,
a 59).
MISCELLANEOUS.
Marco Polo mentions that in the province of Carazan (Khorassan I),
the common sort of people carried poison about their persons, so that
if taken prisoners by the Tartars, they might commit suicide ; but the
Tartars compelled them to swallow dog's dung as an antidote. — (See
Marco Polo, in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 143.)
29S SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATION'S.
" Iii cases of sickness, the Eskimo of Cumberland Sound are not
allowed to clean their chambers before sunrise." — (" The Central
Eskimo," Boas, p. 593.)
The writings of the best medical authorities for the first two centu-
ries after the discovery of the art of printing teem with copious disser-
tations upon the value of these medicaments in all diseases, and as
potent means of frustrating the maleficence of witches ; the best of these
writings will be selected and arranged in chronological order.
" A dram of a shepe's tyrdle,
And good Saiut Francis gyrdle,
With the hamlet of a hyrdle,
Are wholsom for the pyppe."
(Brand, "Pop. Ant." vol. iii.
p. 311, art. " Rural Charms," quoting Bale, " Interlude concerning the Laws of Na-
ture, Moses, and Christ." 4to. 1562.)
" An oyle drawne out of the excrements of Chyldren " and " An Oyle
drawne out of Maune's Ordure," described as medicines in the " Newe
Jewell of Health," by George Baker, Chirurgeon, London, 1576
(Black Letter), pp. 171, 172, was prescribed for fistula and several
other ailments.
" Water distilled from Mamie's Ordure " was given internally for
the falling sickness, dropsy, etc. . . . There was also an " Oyle
drawne out of the Excrements of Chyldren," as well as one from
" Mamie's Ordure " (see " Doctor Gesnerus, faithfully Englished," p.
76). In the same work we read of " Water of Doue's dung . . . which
helpeth the stone " when taken internally. — (Idem p. 77.)
Paracelsus seems to be entitled to more credit than is generally ac-
corded him ; he was a chemist, in the early stages of that science,
groping in the dark, but he was not the mere quack so many are
anxious to make him out to have been. He condemns the old practice
of medicine: — "The olde Physitians made very many medicines of
most filthy things, as of the filth of the eares, sweat of the body, of
women's menstrues (and that which it is horrible to be spoken), of the
Dung of man and other beastes, spittle, urine, flies, mice, the ashes
of an owle's head, etc. . . . Truly, when I consider with myself the
pride of these fooles which disdaine this metalline part of Physicke
(which after their manner, contumeliously they call Chymerican, and
therefore can neither helpe their owne nor many other diseases), I call
to mind a storie ... of Herachio Ephesio, which being sick of a lep-
rosie, despising the help of Physitians, anoynting himself over with
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 299
cow-dung, set himselfe in the sun to drie, and falling asleepe was torn
to pieces by dogges." — (Paracelsus, " Experiments," translation of 159G,
p. 59.)
This last statement should be compared with the description of the
suicides of the East Indian fanatics, given under " Ordeals and Pun-
ishments."
Dr. Fletcher, United States Army, states that iu old medical practice
in England, from the time of Queen Elizabeth down to comparatively
modern days, consumptive patients were directed to inhale the fumes
of ordure. "Some physicians say that the smell of a jakes is good
against the plague." — (" Ajax," p. 74.)
Urine was one of the ingredients from which Paracelsus prepared
his " Crocus, or Tincture of Metals." — (See " Archidoxes," English
translation., Loudon, 1661, p. 59.)
Further on he says, " The salt of man's urine hath an excellent
quality to cleanse; it is made thus," etc. (p. 74). He also says:
" Man's dung, or excrement, hath very great virtues, because it contains
in it all the noble essences, viz. : of the Food and Drink, concerning which
wonderful things might be written." — ("Archidoxes," lib. v. p. 74.)
" To distill Oyle of a Man's Excrements, . . . Take the Doung of
a young, sanguine child, or man, as much as you will. . . This helpeth
the Canker and mollifieth fistulas ; comforteth those that are troubled
with Alopecea."— (" The Secrets of Physicke," London, 1633, p. 98.)
"For any manner of Ache ... a plaister of Pigeon's dung" (see
" A Rich Storehouse or Treasurie for the Diseased," Ralph Blower,
London, 1G16, black letter, p. 3) ; also, "Hen's Dung" (idem, p. 4) ;
to provoke urine, a plaster of Horse dung was applied to the patieut.
(p. 25.)
" For spitting of blood . . . the dung of mice was drunk in wine
(idem, p. 29) ; for sore breasts of women, a plaster of Goose dung (p.
33) ; " for Burns and Scalds ... a Plaster of Sheepe's doung," (p. 38) ;
also, " the Doung of Geese " (p. 39).
"For deafe ears . . . the pisse of a pale Goat" was poured into
them (p. 67) ; horse-dung was used as a face-lotion (p. 106) ; for the
bloody flux soak the feet in water in which " Doue's Doung has been
seethed" (p. 119). For the gout, "Stale pisse" was an ingredient in
a composition for external application (p. 119). For stitch in the side
and back " Pigeon's Doung" was use externally (p. 172) ; for sciatica,
" Oxe-Doung and Pigeon's Doung " in equal parts, were applied as a
plaster (p. 173). Cow-dung was used internally in hydrocele ("The
300 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Chyrurgeou's Closet," London, 1632, p. 38) ; The urine of boys was
used as an application to ulcers in the legs (idem, p. 24) ; again, the
urine of immaculate boys was employed for the cure of all inveterate
ulcers (p. 27) ; goat-dung was applied externally for the cure of auric-
ular abscesses and for ulcers (pp. 35 and 42) ; cow-dung and dove-
dung were used in the same manner (idem p. 42); dove-dung was
also used externally in the treatment of sciatica (p. 48), and for
" Shingles " (idem p. 51). Goat-dung, externally, for tumors (p. 49) ;
goose-dung, externally, for canker in the breasts of women (p. 50) ;
swallow-dung, externally, for angina ; chicken-dung for the same
(p. 58) ; cow-dung, externally, for tumors in the feet (p. 5G) ; cow
and goat dung, externally, in dropsy (p. 222) ; aud many others
throughout the volume.
In a black letter copy of "The Englishman's Treasure," London, 1641,
is given a cure for wounds, in which it is directed " To wash the wounde
very cleane with urine." — (In Toner Collection, Library of Congress,
Washington, D. C.)
To restrain excessive menstrual flow, apply hot plasters of horse-
dung, between the navel and the privy parts. — (See "The English-
man's Treasure," by Thomas Vicary, Surgeon to King Henry VIII.,
Queen Mary, aud Queen Elizabeth; London, 1641, p. 184; this little
volume contains nothing else of value to this work.)
Horse-dung was used internally for pleurisy (" Secrets in Physicke,"
by the Comtesse of Kent, London, 1654, pp. 26, 27); goose-dung, in-
ternally, for yellow jaundice (idem, p. 37) ; " Hound's Turd," exter-
nally, " to cure the bleeding of a Wound " (idem, p. 46) ; peacock's
dung, internally, for the falling sickness or convulsions (idem, p. 56) ;
"The patient's own water," externally, for pains in the breast (p. 64) ;
pigeon's dung, both internally and externally, in child-birth paius (p.
68) ; goose-dung, externally, for burns (p. 96) ; hen's dung, exter-
nally, for burns (p. 152); and for sore eyes (p. 174); "stale urine,"
externally, for sore feet (p. 163).
" The stale of a cow and the furring of a chamber-pot " to be
given, applied locally and externally, for scald head ('' Most excellent
and most approved Remedies," London, 1652, p. SO). "The Urine of
him that is sick," externally, for stitch in the side (p. 115) ; goose
dung, externally, for canker in woman's breast (p. 129) ; " Urin of a
Man Child (he beeing not aboue 3 years of age)" was a component in
a salve for the king's evil (p. 132). For patients sick of the plague,
" Let them driuk twice a day a draught of their own aria" (p. 143).
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 301
" A certain countryman at Antwerp was an example of this, who,
when lie came into a shop of sweet smells, he began to faint, but one
presently clapt some fresh smoking horse-dung under his nose and
fetched him to again." — (Levinus Lemnius, "The Secret Miracles
of Nature," Eng. translation, London, 1G58, p. 107, speaking of the
effects of sweet and nasty smells upon different persons.)
" The urine of a Lizard, . . . the dung of an elephant," were in
medical use, according to Montaigne (" Essays," Hazlitt's translation,
New York, 1859, vol. iii. p. 23 ; art. " On the Resemblauce of Children
to their Parents"). Also, "the excrement of rats beaten to powder"
(idem). The above remedies were for the stone.
Doctor Garrett mentions " water of amber made by Paracelsus out
of cow-dung," and gives the recipe for its distillation, as well as for
that of its near relative, " water of dung," the formula for which begins
with the words, "Take any kind of dung you please."1
The work of Daniel Beokherins, " Medicus Microcosmus," published
in London, in 1G60, is full of the value of excremeutitious remedial
agents.
Urine alone was applied to eradicate lice from the human head ; but
a secondary application of dove's dung was then plastered on (p. G2).
Urine was drunk as a remedy for epilepsy, used as an eye-wash, and
various other ocular affections, and dropped into the ears for various
abscesses and for deafness (pp. 63, 64).
A lotion of one's own urine was good for the palsy ; but where this
had been occasioned by venery, excessive drinking, or mercury, the urine
of a boy was preferable (p. 64). A drink of one's own urine, taken
while fasting, was commended in obstructions of the liver and spleen,
and in dropsy and yellow jaundice (idem) ; but some preferred the
urine of a young boy (p. 65). For jaundice the remedy should be
drunk every morning, and the treatment continued for some time
(idem).
For retention of urine the remedy was to drink the urine of a young
girl (p. 66). Urine was drunk as a remedy for long-continued constipation
(idem) ; for falling of the womb stale urine was applied as a fomenta-
tion (idem) ; for hysteria human ordure and stale urine were applied to
the nostrils (idem) ; the urine of the patient was drunk as a cure for
worms (idem ) ; urine was used as a wash for chapped hands, also for
all cutaneous disorders (idem) ; also for "ficus ani " (p. 67). For gout
1 Garrett, Myths in Medicine, New York, 18S4, pp. 148, 149.
302 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATION'S.
in the feet the patient should bathe them in his own urine, also for
travel sores, as he would then be able to resume his journey nest day
(idem).
One's own urine was drunk as a preservative from the plague.
Beckherius says he knew of his own knowledge that it had been used
with wonderful success between 1620 and 1630 for this purpose.
Urine was recommended as a drink in lues veneris ; while a sufferer
from cancer was bathed in his own urine and Roman vitriol ; ulcers were
likewise bathed with the patient's own urine (p. 68). Urine was applied
as a lotion to wounds, bruises, and contusions (p. 69). Beckherius recites
the case of a laborer who was buried under a falling mass of earth, in
1522, but, being protected by some obstruction, nourished himself for
seven days on his own urine. Besides being used alone in the above
cases, urine entered as an ingredient into medicines for old sores (p. 72) ;
against the growth of " wild hairs," ocular affections, throat troubles as
gargle (p. 73), affections of the spleen (p. 74). The urine of a boy was
to be employed in paralysis and in erysipelas (idem) ; the urine of a
boy was also prescribed in suppression of the menses, and the urine of
a mau in podagra (75). The urine of undefiled boys entered into the
composition of aqua optkalmica, and was used externally in rheumatism
of the legs (p. 74).
The urine of boys was used as an ointment in some fevers ; also as a
fomentation in tympanitis, as a plaster in dropsy, for gangrene and
podagra, in various clysters, in the cure of calculi and cachexy (pp. 78,
79); in some of the plasters cow and dove dung also entered. For the
treatment of anasarca there was a " spagyric preparation of urine." To
make the spirit of urine by distillation, some took the urine of a
healthy man, some that of a wine-drinking boy of twelve years (pp. 81,
82). This spirit was administered in lung troubles, in dropsy, sup-
pression of the menses, all kinds of fevers, retention of urine, calculus,
etc. (p. So) ; also in eye troubles, strangury, diabetes, podagra,
catarrh, melancholia, phrensy, cardialgia, syncope, dysentery, plague,
malignant fevers (p. 8G).
The " spirit of urine " was again distilled with vitriol to make an
anti-podagric remedy (85).
Salt of urine was made by distilling the urine of a boy and collect-
ing the saline residuum ; it was administered in cardiac troubles and to
aid in the expulsion of the dead foetus ; from it were made various em-
pirical remedies, — moon salt, the salt of Jove, salt of Mercury, spirit
of Orion, mercurius microcosmicus, which were used for all kinds of
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 303
physical infirmities (p. 87). The quintessence of urine was distilled
from the urine of a strong, health}', chaste man of thirty years, who
had drunk heavily of wine for the occasion ; by another authority it is
recommended that this happen while the sun and Jupiter may be in
' Piscibus." This was used in calculi of the kidneys and bladder and
in all ulcerations of those parts ; externally, as a lotion in gonorrhrea
and external ulcers of the private parts, for wounds and lesions of all
sorts, urinary troubles, worms, putrid fevers, and as a preservative
against the plague, for hard tumors, etc. (p. 97).
An " anti-epileptic spirit " had the urine of boys as its main com-
ponent (p. 95) ; there was an " anti-epileptic extract of the moon
(p. 96); an "anti-podagric medicament" of the same components
almost. A " panacea Solaris " had for its principal ingredient the urine
of a boy who had been drinking freely of wiue (p. 97).
HUMAN ORDURE.
Beckherius cites a case where its use for three days cured a man of
yellow jaundice ; dried, powdered, and drunk in wine, it cured febrile
paroxysms (p. 112) ; it was recommended to be that of a boy fed for
some time on bread and beans.
To smell human ordure in the morning, fasting, protected from
plague (pp. 112, 113).
He also gives the mode of preparing " zibethum," or " occidental
sulphur " (p. 116).
As a cure for angina a mixture was prescribed containing the white
dung of dogs ; also human ord'jre, swallow-dung, licorice, and candy
(p. 113). In cancer, human ordure was applied as a plaster, mixed
with turpentine, tobacco, antimony, powdered litharge, powdered crabs,
etc. (pp. 113, 111).
He also gives the formulas for preparing aqua and oleum ex stercore
humano (p. 114). In other places the use of ordure and urine in medi-
cine is mentioned as a matter of course. — (See p. 271 ; also under the
headings of "Ass," "Mouse," "Horse," etc.; again, pp. Ill, 192
et seq.)
Beckherius gives a list of a number of preparations which to our
more enlightened view of such things must appear trivial, and need
not be repeated here in detail, — such as one for " extracting the
vitriol of metals," etc. Into the preparation of all these human urine
entered.
Potable gold was made with a menstruum of spirits of wine and
304 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
human urine, half and half (pp. 100-102) ; there was an "oil of sul-
phur" prepared from human urine (103); there was a " precipitate
of mercury and urine " (idem) ; there was finally a ludum iirinoe, the
residuum after the distillation of the aqua or the spiritus respectively,
which was prescribed medicinally in the same way as these were
(pp. 109, 110).
Yon Helmout called the salt obtained by the distillation of human
urine " duelech." (See " Oritrike, or Physicke Refined," John Baptist
von Helmont, English translation, London, 1662, pp. S47-849.) This
was the name generally given by Paracelsus to the stone in the bladder.
You Helmont instances a cure of tympanitis or dropsy by a belly-
plaster of hot cow-dung, and adds, " Neither, therefore, doth Paracelsus
vainly commend dungs, seeing that they are the salts of putrefied
meats" (p. 520).
"Petrseus (Henricus) Nosolog. Harmon, lib. i. dissertat. 13, p. 252,
et Job. Schaxleras, pharmacop. med. chym. lib. v. p. 829, "stercus
siccatum tritum et cum melle illitum ad auguinam curaudam magai
usns esse dicunt." — (" Bib. Scatalogica," p. 84.)
The ponderous tomes of Michael Etmuller contain all that was
known or believed in on this subject at the time of their publication,
a. d. 1690. He gives reasons for the employment of each excrement,
solid or liquid, human or animal, which need not be detailed at this
moment.
Human urine. " Urina calif, exsiccat, resolvit, abstergit, discutit,
mundificat, putredini resistit, ideoque usus est proecipue intriusecus in
obstructione epatis, lienis, vesica?, biliara?, pestis preservation, hy-
drope, ictero. . . . Exstrinsecus siccat scabiem, resolvit tumores, mun-
dificat vulnera etiam venenata, arcet gangrrenam, solvit alvum (in
clysmata) abstergit furfures capitis. . . . compescit febriles iusullus
(pulsui applicata) exulceratas aures sanat (instillata pueri urina) ocu-
lorum tubedine subvenit (instillata) artuum tremorem tollit (lotioue)
uvula? tumoretn discutit (gargas), lienis dolores sedat (cum cinere
cataplasmata)."
From the urine of a wine-drinking boj% "urina pueri (ann. 12) vinum
bibentis," distilled over human ordure, was made " spiritus urina? " of
great value in the expulsion of calculi, although it stunk abominably,
"sed valde fcetet." This was employed in the treatment of gout,
asthma, calculi, and diseases of the bladder. (Etmuller, " Schroderi
Diluc," vol. ii. p. 265.) There are several other methods given of
obtaining this " spiritus urina? per distillationem."
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 303
Then there was a " spiritus urinre per putrefactionem." To make
this, the urine of a boy twelve years old, who had been drinking wine,
was placed in a receptacle, surrounded by horse-dung for forty days,
allowed to putrefy, then decanted upon human ordure, and distilled
in an alembic, etc. There were other methods for making this also,
but this one will suffice. The resulting fluid was looked upon as
a great "anodyne" for all sorts of pains, and given both internally
and externally, as well as in scurvy, hypochondria, cachexy, yellow
and black jaundice, calculi of the kidneys aud bladder, epilepsy, and
mania.
" Potable gold " was made from this spirit. " Idem spiritus optime
purificatus (scil. aliquoties) in aqua pluviasolvendo et distillando cum-
que spiritus vini analytice unitus solvit aurum, unde aurum potabile "
(vol ii. p. 266).
A urine bath was good for gout in the feet. A drink of one's own
urine was highly praised as a preservative from the plague. " Urinre :
Potus urinte propria laudatur in preservanda et curanda peste."
Such a draught was also used by women in labor. " Urinse hausta a
mulieribus parturientibus partum facilitat." Clysters of urine were
administered in tympanites, or dropsy of the belly. Urine was ap-
plied in ulcerations of the ears.
Saltpetre was formerly made from earth, lime, etc., saturated with
human urine, ordure, etc.
The "spiritus urinaj" obtained by the distillation of urine, removed
obstructions from the bladder, meatus, etc., expelled calculi, and was a
diaphoretic and an anti-scorbutic ; it was likewise used in the cure of
hypochondria, cachexy, chlorosis, etc., taken internally.
From the distillation of vitriol and urine an anti-epileptic medicine
was obtained. — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 271.)
From the above-mentioned "spiritus urinse per distillationem" was
prepared " magisterium urinfe seu microcosmi," useful in cases of
atrophy ; it also prevented the pains of the stone, if taken monthly
before the new moon. — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 2GG.)
Human ordure. " Stercus (carbon humanum Paracelsi, aliis sulph.
occiden.) emollit, maturat, anodynum est. Ea propter magni usus ad
mitigandum dolores incantations introductos (impositum) ad anthraces
pestilentiales maturandos, ad phlegmonem, v. g. gntturis seu anginam
curandam (siccatum, tritum et cum melle illitum) ad inflammationem
vulnerum arcendam. Quin et intrinsecus a nonnullis adhibetur in an-
gina (crematnm et potui datum); in febribus ad paroxysmos prof-
20
306 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
ligandos (eodem modo propinatum dos. 32), in epilepsia, quam stercus
primum infantuli siccatum et pulverisatum, et ad complures dies
exhibitum, radicitus evellere aiunt " (vol. ii. p. 266).
He alludes to the " aqua " and the " oleum " " ex stercore distilla-
tura," both used in ophthalmic diseases, as cosmetics to restore color to
the face, to restore and produce hah-, to cure tumors and fistulas, and
remove cicatrices, and for the cure of epilepsy. " Interne prodesse
aiunt comitialibus et hydropicis, lapidemque renum et vesica? pellere,
morsibusque canis rabidi, venenatorumque animalium Bub venire."
The " oleum ex stercore " had to be prepared from the ordure of a
youug man, not a boy, " juvenis, non pueri " (vol. ii. p. 26G).
Etmuller tells the same story we have already had from so many
other sources, in regard to the medicinal properties ascribed to human
ordure. It was looked upon as a valuable remedy, applied as a poul-
tice for all inflammations and suppurations, carbuncles and pest bu-
boes, administered for the cure of bites of serpents, and all venomous
animals. It should be taken raw, dried, or in drink. It was the only
specific against the bites of the serpents of India, especially the " na-
pellus," whose bite kills in four hours unless the patient adopts this
method of cure. It was considered a specific against the plague, and
of great use in effecting " magico-magnetic " or "sympathetic or trans-
plantation " cures. It was also in high repute for baffling the efforts
of witches.
AVater distilled from ordure was good for sore eyes, especially if the
man whose ordure was used had been fed only on bread and wine.
This was administered internally for dropsy, calculus, epilepsy, bites
of mad dogs, carbuncles, etc." (vol. ii. p. 272).
" Zibetta occidentals nihil est aliud quam stercus mediante diges-
tione ad suavolentiam redactum, qua Zibettam mentitur; vid. Agri-
cola," vol. ii. p. 2GG.
Of the value of this "zibethum" Etmuller quotes from an older
authority: " Eosencrauzerus in Astron. inferior (p. 232), dicit quod
zibethum humanum ... si lllinatur parti genitali mulieris foeruina
attrahat fcetnm et precaveatur abortus" (vol. ii. p. 272).
Human ordure, containing as it does "an anodyne sulphur, . . .
destructive of acids," was supposed to be beneficial in burns, inflamma-
tions, and as a plaster for the dispersal of plague buboes. ... In
insulis Botiis dictis, gens quoddam serpentis repiriri, cujus morsum
mors sequatur, nisi stercus proprium demorsi mox assumatur. Tan-
dem aqua stercoris humani cosmetica, ab aliis ophthalmatica censetur
ORDURE AND URIXE IX MEDICINE. 307
sic ut et ejusdem oleum contra cancrum mammarum specifice com-
meudatur " (vol. ii. p. 171).
" In stercoribus animalium magna latet vis medica, ratione scilicet
salis volatilis ; in specie stercus porciuum omnes hremorrhagias ad
miracuhim sistit, sive in forma pulveris ad 3 i., sive in forma electuarii
adhibens ; annus est quo rustica qua;dam post abortum insigne patie-
batur mensium profluvium cui cum meo suasu maritus inscie propi-
nasset stercus suillum, fluxus cessavit et mulier pristinae reddita
sanitati. Stercus equinum summum est remedium in passione hys-
terica, et doloribus colicis, si succus expressus cum cerevisia vel vino
propinetur ; sic quoque conducit in variolis et morbilis infantum, prop-
inatus cum cerevisia calida, qui optime per sudorem expellit ut taceam
de effectu quem pnestat in pleuritide laudando.
Ut ita licet volatilia in uno puncto convenire videantur, diversis
tamen, ratione diversae et specificae cujuslibet craseus medeantur mor-
bos " (vol. ii. sect. 3, " Pyrotechnia Eationalis," — " de Animalibus,"
Etmuller, " Opera Omnia," xx.)
" Animalium omnium participant de natura salis ammoniaci constant
quippe (are certainly known) ex acido et alcali oleoso volatili indeque,
anrfe beneficio alterantur in nitro, prsesertim avium excrementa qnic-
qnid igitur praestant, operantur ex vi salis ammoniacali " (vol. ii. p. 171).
The use of animal dungs was noted, but not unqualifiedly com-
mended by Etmuller, in the following cases : dog-dung, mixed with
honey, for inflammation of the throat; wolf-dung, in form of powder,
as an anti-colic.
Dog-dung (album Grcecum officinalis) was regarded as nseful in dys-
entery, epilepsy, colic ; was applied externally in augina, malignant
ulcers, hard tumors, warty growths, etc. Especial value was attached
to such dung gathered in the month of July, from a bone-fed dog,
because it was whiter, purer, and less fetid. Dog-urine was employed
as a lotion for warty growths, ulcers on the head, etc. (vol. ii. p. 253).
" Dicitur in officinis semper album Graecum, nuuqnam stercus."
The dog " debite nutriatur cum ossibus solis, cum nullo vel pauco
potu " (vol. ii. p. 254).
Goat-dung was used in hard tumors of the spleen and other parts of
the body ; in buboes, ear-abscesses, inveterate ulcers, dropsy, scabby-
head, lichen, etc. (p. 254). In all these its use was external, but for
other troubles of the spleen, yellow jaundice, retention of the menses,
and similar ailments, it was given internally. Goat-urine was given
internally in removal of calculi, urinary troubles, and (after distilla-
308 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
tion) for dropsy. The egestae of the wild goat were used for almost
identically the same disorders (vol. ii. p. 254).
The juice of horse-dung was used by the English in colic, pleurisy,
and hysteria. — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 254.)
Pig-dung, dried, snuffed up into the nostrils, cured nasal hemor-
rhages. Compare this with the use made of the dried excrement of
the Grand harna as a sternutatory and general curative.
Hyena-dung was used in medicine, but the diseases are not men-
tioned.
Sparrow-dung and mouse-dung, if made into pills, and taken to the
number of nine, would bring on the menses of women.
Cow-dung was recommended as a fomentation in gout.
The use of cow-dung, internally, was highly commended for expel-
ling calculi and for the cure of retention of urine, on account of the
" volatile nitrous salts which ascended iu the alembic, and which had
a good effect upon the kidneys."
The common people drank the juice expressed from this dung in all
cases of colic and pleurisy, for which they found it a beneficial medicine.
" Ulterius valde convenit ad pellendum calculum et ciendam uriuam
propter sal. vol. nitrosum qui ascendit per alembicam unde ad nephri-
tidem et ciendam urinam valde commendatur a poterio. . . . Plebii
iu colico dolore succum ex stercore propinant, quod verum est, non
solum in colico sed etiam iu pleuritide prsesentaneum remedium "
(vol. ii. pp. 249, 250).
The juice of young geese, gathered in the month of March, was used
in jaundice and cachexy. . . . Hen-dung was sometimes employed as
a substitute for goose-dung. Peacock-dung was employed in all cases
of vertigo. . . . Swallow-dung was used in cases of angina and inflam-
mation of the tonsils (vol. ii. p. 171).
Hawk-dung was used for sore eyes. Duck-dung " fimus morsui vene-
natorum animalium imponitur " (vol. ii. p. 286).
Goat-dung, drunk in cases of hemorrhage. . . . Goat-urine consid-
ered a specific for the expulsion of calculi of the bladder. Asses' urine
drunk for diseases of the kidneys, atrophy, paralysis, consumption, etc.
Asses' dung taken internally in form of powder or potion, and applied
also externally in all cases of hemorrhage, excessive uterine flow, and
troubles of that nature (vol. ii. p. 247). It was thought by some to
be best when gathered in the mouth of May ; others thought that dog-
dung should be substituted. Cow-urine was a beneficial application
to sore eyes.
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 309
Cow-duug was used in all cases of burns, inflammations, rheumatism,
etc., " apum ac vesparum morsibus." (We have already seen that it
has been used for bee stings in the State of New Jersey.) " Suffitu
reprimit uterum prolapsum." Finally, it was used as a plaster in
dropsy. — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 248.)
Dove-dung was applied generally in cataplasms and rubefacient
plasters for the cure of rheumatism, headache, vertigo, colic pains,
apoplexy ; also in boils, scorbutic swellings, etc., and drunk as a cure
for dropsy. — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 287.)
Quail-dung, " fimum in vino potum, dysenteriam sanare tradit Kyna-
rides " (vol. ii. p. 288).
Fresh calf-dung was rubbed on the skin for the cure of erysipelas.
Fox-dung was applied externally for the cure of all cutaneous dis-
orders (vol. ii. pp. 283-285).
Kid-dung (Capreolus or Chevreul) was drunk as a cure for yellow
jaundice (vol. ii. p. 257).
Cat-dung was applied as a poultice to scab in the head and to gout
in the feet (vol. ii. p. 259).
Horse-dung, fresh or burnt to ashes, was applied externally as a
styptic, used as a fumigation to aid in the expulsion of the foetus and
after-birth ; also drunk as a potion for colic pains, strangulation of
the uterus, expulsion of the foetus and after-birth, and for pleurisy.
" Stercus equinum est medicina magni et multi usus. . . . Interne
succus ex stercore recenti expressus." For the certain cure of pleurisy,
it should be the dung of a young stallion, especially if oat-fed. " In
Angina certe stercus equinum non cedit stercori hirundinum . . . et
canis" (vol. ii. p. 263).
Lion-dung, taken internally, was an anti-epileptic.
Hare-dung was administered internally in calculus and dysentery,
and externally for bums.
Hare-urine was applied in ear troubles.
Wolf-dung was found efficacious, taken internally, in colic.
Musk was frequently given, mixed with zibethum, as a carminative ;
also as a nervine and a cardiac.
Mouse-dung found its advocates as a remedy, given internally, in
the constipation of children, calculi, used in enemata.
The internal administration of rat-dung removed catamenial ob-
structions.
Mouse-dung was styled " album nigrum ; " dog-dung, " album
Graecum."
310 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Sheep-dung was administered internally in yellow jaundice ; "max-
imi usus in aurigiue, sumptuni cum petroseliuo " (rock-parsley), —
while, externally, it was applied to hard tumors, swellings, boils,
burns, etc.
The urine of red or black sheep was given internally in dropsy.
'' Urina (nigrae vel rubrae ovis) sumpta, aquam inter cutem abigit."
The dose was from five to six ounces.
Hog-duug, externally, in cutaneous disorders, bites of venomous
animals, nasal hemorrhage, — for the cure of this last even the odor
was sufficient ; " sufficit etiam odor."
Michaelus Etmuller, "Opera Omnia," "Schroderi dilucidati Zoologia,"
Lyons, 1690, vol. ii. pp. 263-279, inclusive.
Quail-dung was administered for epilepsy when the bird had been fed
on hellebore. — (Etmuller, "Opera Omnia," " Schrod. Diluc. Zool."
vol. ii. p. 288.)
Cuckoo-dung, taken in drink, cured the bites of mad dogs. — (Idem.)
White hen-dung was preferred for medicinal purposes. It was em-
ployed for the same ailments as dove-dung, but was not believed to be
so efficacious. It was especially valuable in colic and uterine pains, in
yellow jaundice, calculus, abscesses in the side, suppression of urine,
etc. (vol. ii. p. 289).
There was another cure for the bites of mad dogs, — the duug of
the swallow taken internally. It was also considered to be a cure for
colic pains and kiduey troubles, and was made into a suppository iu
cases of irritation of the rectum (vol. ii. p. 290).
Kite-dung was sometimes applied externally in pains of the joints
(vol. ii. p. 291).
As a purgative, starling dung is enumerated in this strange list of
filthy medicaments (vol. ii p. 292).
The egestae of wild oxen was used for the same therapeutical pur-
poses as the excrement of the domesticated bovines (vol. ii. p. 252).
Peacock-dung. " Stercus proprietate vertiginem et epilepsiam sanat
(in dies multos exhibitum)." It should be administered in wine, and
the treatment was to be persisted in from the new until the full moon,
or longer. " Continuando a novilunio usque ad plenilunium, aut am-
plius. ... In epilepsiam est specificum magno usu expertum." It
■was likewise considered of great value iu the cure of vertigo, but the
dung of the cock should be given to men ; that of the hen, to women.
Etmuller, however, did not think this distinction to be necessary (vol.
ii. pp. 292, 293).
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 311
The dung of geese, old or young, was employed in the treatment of
yellow jaundice, for which it was believed to be a specific. The dose
was one scruple. The geese should have been fed on " herba cheli-
donii." Next to the yellow jaundice, it was of special value in scurvy,
taken either iu the form of a powder or a decoction. For the cure of
dropsy it was the main ingredient in several of the remedies prescribed.
It was also the principal component iu the manufacture of ''aqua
ophthalmica Imperatoris Maximiliani," to prepare which, the dung of
young geese was gathered in the mouths of April and May (vol. ii.
p. 287).
Stork-dung, stercus ciconiae. Believed to be potential in epilepsy
and diseases of the same type. " Stercus, si ex aqua hauritur, comiti-
alibus aliisque morbis capitis prodesse credunt."— (Etmuller, vol. ii.
p. 287.)
The laxative properties of mouse-dung were extolled by Dr. Jacob
Augustine Hunerwolf, in " Ephemeridum Physico-Medicarum," Leip-
zig, 1694, vol. i. p. 189.
Bosiuus Lentilius relates that there was a certain old hypochrondiac,
of fifty or more, who, in order to ease himself of an obstinate constipa-
tion, for more than a month drank copious draughts of his own urine,
fresh aud hot, but with the worst results, "Per mensem circiter urinam
suam statim a mictu calentem ipsa matuta hauriret." — (In "Ephem.
Physico-Medicarum," Leipzig, 1694, vol. ii. p. 169.)
On the page just cited and those immediately following, can be found
some ten or twelve pages of fine print, quarto, elucidative of the
uses of the human excreta, medicinally, aud as a matter of morbid
appetite.
To the Ephemeridum, Dr. Lentilius also contributed a careful re-
sume of all that was at that time known of the medicinal or other form
of the internal employment of the human excreta ; he premised his
remarks by saying that while some persons sent to foreign countries
and ransacked their woods and forests for medicines, there were others
who sought their remedies nearer home, and did not disdain the em-
ployment of the vilest excrements. " I am not speaking now," he re-
marks, " of the excrements of animals, but of human ordure and
human urine. We know," he continues, "that horse-dung is used for
the cure of colic, pig-dung for checking internal hemorrhages, dog-
dung or album Groecum for angina, goose-dung for yellow jaundice,
peacock-dung for vertigo, and goat-dung, in Courlaud beer, for malig-
nant fevers. The Mexicans used human ordure as an autidote against
312 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
serpent bites in two-scruple doses, drunk in some convenient liquor :
" De Lotuerda contra veuenatos Mexicano — serpeutis ictus — ad 3 ii.
in couvenieuti liquore bausta " (p. 170). The same mixture was drunk
by the Japanese, as a remedy against the wounds made by poisoned
weapons : " De eadem mixtura sed e stercore proprio confusa contra
telorum venena Japouensibus pota." Observe that in this last case
the ordure had to be that of the wounded man himself.
Etmuller recommends its use in expelling from the system the virus
of " napelli " whatever that may have been. To cure the plague, the
patient was to consume a quantity equal in size to a filbert. To frus-
trate the effects of incantation and witchcraft, it had to be drunk in
oil. Used in the same manner, it was supposed to be of use in expel-
ling worms : "De eadem mixtura, sed a stercore proprio," etc., as
already quoted. " De stercore humano, seu recente seu arido, adsunto
ad expugnandum napelli virus, etiam a nostratibus commendato, de
quo vid. Etmuller, etc. ... In peste fugauda mane ad avellanas
quautitatem devorando, ... ad morbos e fascino ex aceto propinato
... ad expellendos vermes eodem modo usurpato." He alludes also
to " Oletum " and the medicines made with it, as an ingredient ; but
says he will leave " Zibethum " and " Occidental Sulphur " to Paracel-
sus and the members of his school. He quotes Galen as recommending
the drinking of the urine of a stout, healthy boy, as a preventive of the
plague. " Urinapueri sani bibita . . . preservansapeste," quoting Galen,
lib. x. "De Simp. Med. Fac." A draught of her husband's urine was
of great assistance to a woman in uterine troubles : " Sic, in Svcro^ia
urince maritalis haustum concelebrant alii." The urine of a chaste boy
was much commended by many writers for internal use in dropsy,
splenic inflammation, etc. " Sic urinam impolluti pueri quotidie potum,
esse medicamentum laudabile et praesentaneum, ad lieuis morbos et
hydropem." It would be useless to quote further in the words of the
original. Lentilius goes on to say that a potion of one's own urine
was extolled in the treatment of the bites of snakes, wounds by deadly
weapons, incipient dropsy and consumption.
To drink one's own urine for the space of three days was a sure cure
for the yellow jaundice, also in preserving from the plague. But Yon
Helmont was of the opinion that in this last case its virtues were
derived from the fact that it was a stimulant and served to keep up
the spirits. By Etmuller, its use was strongly recommended in the
treatment of the yellow jaundice, etc. (citing Etmuller). It was like-
wise highly extolled by Avicenna.
OKDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 313
"We are next treated to a feast of big words, in which we learn that
on account of its " nitrosity " and " volatility," it was regarded as a
"detersive," and "penetrative," while, on account of the alkali it con-
tained, it was a neutralizer of the "fermenting acids," and therefore
applicable in cardialgia, anorexia, gout, toothache, colic, yellow jaun-
dice, and intermittent fevers, either the urine " of the patient himself
or that of a wine-drinking hoy."
Boyle, the eminent philosopher, is quoted as saying that, in his
opinion, the virtues of human urine, as a medicine, internally and ex-
ternally, would require a volume by themselves. Boyle is also credited
with having published a tract on this subject, hi Leipzig, 1692, over
the signature " B."
Lentilius devotes a number of pages of close, logical reasoning to
demonstrate the fallacy of supposing that human excreta can be of any
possible utility in therapeutics. According to his opinion, Nature
voided them from the body because the body had no further use for
them ; therefore, their re-absorption could scarcely be other than
deleterious ; this was all the more true in disease, because the patient
being in a morbid state, that which he ejected could by no process of
correct reasoning be regarded as healthy. This argument, although of
great interest and value, is very long and pertains rather to the history
of medicine proper than to this essay.
Lentilius concludes by saying that no more cruel threat could be
made than that of Sennacherib against the Jews that he would make
them eat their own excrement and drink the water which bathed his
feet: "Quam futurum esse, ut quisquis sua stercora voraturus, et
aquam pedum suorum bibiturus sit." Esa. 3G, ver. 12. "Vaemis-
eris a;grotis, quo rumores ad urines potum rediit." — (In " Kphcr.i.
Phys. Medic." Leipzig, 1G94, vol. ii. pp. 1G9 to 170, inclusive ; the
pages are quarto, the number of words to the page about 37-5.)
Lentilius has either stolen bodily from Paullini, or anticipated him ;
he has all of Paulliui's facts, but seems, in addition, to have been
much of a philosopher, which Paullini was not.
Christian Franz Paullini's "Filth Pharmacy," Frankfort, 1696, is
better known than any other of the works cited, being in German, of
small size, and confining itself almost exclusively to a recapitulation of
diseases, with the appropriate excrementitious curative opposite each.
Six different editions are contained in the Library of the U. S. Army
Medical Museum, in Washington; of these, that of Frankfort, 1696
(268 pages, duodecimo), was selected, and the work of translation en-
314 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
trusted to Messrs. Smith and Pratz ; being perfectly familiar with Eng-
lish and German, their interpretation, made slowly and carefully, may
be relied on as minutely correct.
Paullini has done nothing beyond collecting his ample list of cases
til which the human and animal excreta were employed in the treat-
ment of diseases ; he has in no instance veutured upon an explana-
tion of the reason for such use, such as Etmuller supplied.
He treats of the employment of human ordure and urine, and animal
excreta, in the following diseases : headache, insomnia, vertigo, demen-
tia, melancholia, mania, gout, convulsions, palsy, epilepsy, sore eyes,
cataract, ophthalmia, ear troubles, bleeding of the nose, nasal polypi,
carious teeth, drops}' of the head, wens, asthmatic troubles, coughs,
spittiug of blood, consumption, pleurisy, fainting spells, diseases of the
mammary glands, tumors, colic, abnormal appetite, worms, hernia,
sciatica, ulceration of the bowels, constipation, diarrhoea, dysentery,
obstructions of the liver, dropsy, jaundice, kidney troubles, gravel,
stone, reteution of urine, excessive flow of urine, impaired virility,
swelling of the testicles, uterine displacements, menstrual troubles,
sterility, accidents to pregnant women, miscarriages, difficult labor,
pains after childbirth, gout of feet, rheumatism, fevers of all kinds,
poisons, plague, syphilitic and venereal diseases, abscesses, sprains, con-
tusions, bruises, wounds, ring-worm, felons, itch, freckles, as a cosmetic,
for rash, tetter, loss of hair, lice, gangrene, colds, warts, fissure of the
rectum, fistulas, corns, bunions, love-potions, and to baffle witchcraft.
For headache, pigeon-dung was used internally, and the dung of a
red cow and of the peacock, externally.
Insomnia, donkey-dung, internally ; gout aud pigeon dung, exter-
nally. Human urine was also used for the same purpose (pp. 28, 29).
Vertigo. Pigeon, peacock, aud squirrel dung, all used internally.
Dementia. Donkey-dung, externally.
Melancholia. Calf or ox dung, internally ; owl-dung, externally.
Mania. Human ordure, internally ; boy's urine, internally, and also
owl's and chicken's dung, internally.
Gout. Boy's urine, externally, aud owl's, jenny's, horse's, cow's,
deer's, and sow's dung, externally.
Convulsions. Peacock and horse dung, externally.
Palsy. Let the patient wash with his own urine or that of a young
boy (pp. 28, 29) ; administer peacock's or horse's dung internally.
For the cure of the dread disease, epilepsy, human ordure and the
urine of boys were administered internally, and there were likewise in-
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 315
ternal applications of the dung of horses, peacocks, mice, dogs, black
cows, lions, storks, and wild hogs ; no external applications are noted
for this disease (pp. 28, 29, 42, 43).
Another remedy for epilepsy was to take the excrements of a fine,
healthy youth, dry them, and extract the oil by means of heat ; rectify
this oil and take inwardly (pp. 42, 43).
For inflamed and running eyes make a collyrium of the warm urine
of young boys, mingled with other ingredients. Make an external ap-
plication of boys' urine, or of the dung of swallows, pigeons, cows,
goats, prairie hens, horses, lizards, doves. There was no internal ad-
ministration of any of the above suggested.
For ophthalmic troubles, the same treatment as the above.
Cataract. Make an external application of human ordure, of boy's
urine, or of the dung of wolves, green lizards, or geese.
Earache or ringing in the ear, or abscesses. Apply the urine of
young boys mixed with honey, or apply fresh human urine.
Other ear troubles. External application of boy's urine or of the
patient's own urine ; external application of the dung of the white
goat, or pigeon's, cat's, deer's, rabbit's, jenny's, wild hog's or wolfs
dung.
Bleeding at the nose. External application of dog's urine, of horse
urine, or of the dung of calf, donkey, hog, cow, horse, camel, or
rabbit.
Nasal polypi. Dung of dog or donkey, externally.
Toothache or carious teeth. One's own ordure, or the dung of
wolf, dog, raven, mouse, or horse, in all cases externally (pp. 52,
53).
Toothache. Apply a poultice of human excrement, mixed with
camomile-flowers, to the cheek.
Dropsy of the head. Take boy's urine internally.
Croup and throat troubles generally. Boys' urine, both internally
and externally ; a gargle and a potion of one's own urine ; and both
internal and external applications of the white dung of dogs, gathered
in July; or the dung of geese, pigeons, eagles, goats, owls, hens, or
wolves.
Asthmatic troubles. Salts of urine or pigeon's dung, externally.
Coughs. The dung of dogs, internally, or the dung of geese ; the
dung of ravens, deer, or sparrows, externally.
Spitting of blood. The excreta of wild sows, doves, sheep, cows,
horses, mice, dogs, or peacocks, internally.
316 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Consumption. The patient's ordure, internally; his own or a boy's
urine, or mice-dung, internally (pp. 74, 75).
Another remedy for consumption was to let the patient drink a mix-
ture of his own urine beaten up with fresh egg ; repeat for several
successive mornings ; also, let him eat his own excrement (pp. 74,
76).
For pleurisy, we read that there was an external application of the
patient's own urine, or that the dung of donkeys, horses, stallious,
mares, hens, pigeons, and dogs was given internally.
Fainting-spells. Human ordure, externally ; one's own urine, inter-
nally ; cow-urine or the dung of horses, sheep, or birds, externally
Diseases of the mammary glands. The dung of cows or mice, inter-
nally, and also an external application of that of oxen, goats, hogs, dogs,
cows, or pigeons.
Cancer of the breast. The patient's own ordure internally, with ex-
ternal applications of the dung of geese, cows, goats, or rabbits.
Wens. External applications of the dung of cows, rats, mice, goats,
sheep, geese, pigeons, or jennies.
Colic. Human ordure, internally; " Eau de Millefleurs," internally
(we know that " Eau de Millefleurs " was itself a composition of cow-
dung) ; take bees internally (the only instance recorded of such a
use of this insect), or the dung of horses, cats, swallows, or chickens,
externally.
A youth in Leyden fell madly in love with a young girl, but could
not get the consent of his parents to marry her. He was seized with
a violent fever and constipation. In this desperate condition he im-
agined that a drink of fresh urine from his beloved would benefit him ;
he accordingly wrote to her, begging her to satisfy his longing, which
she accordingly granted, and after drinking of the beverage to his
heart's content, he found immediate relief (whether from the constipa-
tion or the passion Paullini neglects to state). — (Paullini, pp. 106,
107.)
Abnormal appetite. The same remedies as are enumerated for
colic, q. v.
Worms. The patient's own urine, internally ; the dung of horses or
cows or hogs, internally.
Hernia. Rabbit-dung, internally.
Sciatica. External application of the dung of goats, pigeons, horses,
or chickens.
Constipation. Human ordure, internally ; human urine, internally ;
ORDURE AND URINE IX MEDICINE. 317
or the excreta of sows, mice, chickens, geese, sparrows, magpies,
or pigeons internally.
Diarrhcea. Dog-dung, internally ; sow, donkey, or cow dung,
externally.
Dysentery. The patient's own ordure or that of a boy, internally;
human urine, internally; or the excreta of dogs, horses, hogs, crows,
rabbits, donkeys, mules, or elephants, internally.
Obstructions of the liver. Salts of urine, internally ; or the dung of
geese, swallows, or deer, internally.
Dropsy. Human ordure, internally ; the patient's own urine or that
of a boy, internally ; or external applications of dung of geese, chickens,
goats, donkeys, dogs, deer, horses, or sheep, internally.
Kidney troubles. Human urine, both internally and externally ;
goose-dung, internally ; sheep-dung, externally ; donkey or deer dung,
internally.
Kidney diseases, stone in the bladder. Take internally human urine
or water, distilled over human ordure, or the dried catamenia of
women, or the scrapings of chamber-pots taken in brandy. — (Paulliui,
pp. 142, 143.)
Gravel. The patient's own urine, internally ; or the dung of
pigeons, rats, chickens, mice, wild hogs, or donkeys, both internally and
externally.
Excessive urination. The dung of goats, mice, or wild hog,
internally.
Difficult urination. The urine of a girl, internally ; the urine of the
patient, both internally and externally ; the dung of sparrows, inter-
nally ; or the dung of donkeys, goats, chickens, geese, roosters, or
pigeons, externally.
Impaired virility and swelling of the testicles. The dung of prairie
hens, or that of sparrows, internally; or the dung of rabbits, bulls,
cows, or goats, externally.
Uterine displacements. Human ordure, internally ; the dung of fal-
cons, horses, or bulls, internally, or the dung of sows, donkeys, or sheep.
Human excrement was applied outwardly in treatment of falling of the
womb ; this was also considered a good method of treating inflamma-
tion of the vagina ; stale urine and the steam of old socks, and asses'
dung, was applied outwardly. The scrapings of chamber vessels was
taken inwardly, mixed with other ingredients (pp. 154, 155).
For menstrual troubles menstrual blood was administered internally ;
the urine of boys, internally ; the excreta of donkeys and rabbits,
318 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
both internally and externally ; and those of hogs, rats, and horses,
externally.
For cessation of the menses. Take internally pulverized menses
dried, and wear a chemise smeared with human blood (most probably
the chemise of a woman who had been more fortunate in her purga-
tion) ; or boil boys' urine and garlic together, and inhale the steam
(p. 158).
Gout, rheumatism. The patient's own urine, both internally and
externally ; the urine of boys, externally ; the dung of mice or rab-
bits, internally ; the excreta of cows, bulls, calves, donkeys, pigeons,
peacocks, storks, dogs, goats, or wild hogs, externally.
Another remedy for gout and rheumatism was the excreta of chick-
ens, dogs, or cocks, internally.
Tertiary fever. Human ordure and urine, internally ; the excreta
of sows, donkeys, chickens, and swallows, and the white dung of dogs,
internally.
Quaternary fever. The ordure of infants, internally ; the urine of
an old woman, mixed with donkey-dung, externally ; the dung of geese
gathered in May, of dogs, of sparrows, chickens, and sheep, internally ;
and cat-dung, externally.
Malignant fevers. The urine of the patient, internally ; the urine
of a jenny, internally ; the dung of a red cow, of a reindeer, horse,
sheep, or goat, internally ; no external applications in this case.
Antidotes for poisons. Human ordure internally, and human urine
both internally and externally ; the excreta of hogs, ducks, swallows,
goats, calves, or chickens, internally ; of pigeons, cows, sheep, donkeys,
and horses, externally.
Plague. Human ordure and urine, internally ; bull-dung, internally ;
the dung of cows, chickens, or pigeons, externally.
Syphilis and venereal diseases. Human urine, internally, also ex-
ternally ; and the excreta of horses and dogs, externally.
Abscesses and sprains. The urine of boys, externally ; the excreta
of cows, goats, dogs, pigeons, chickens, camels, geese, externally ; or of
the wild hog, both internally and externally.
Boils. Human ordure and urine, externally ; the dung of chickens,
pigeons, goats, dogs, cows, bulls, sheep, or foxes, externally.
Wounds. Human ordure and urine, externally ; the excreta of dogs
and goats, internally ; or of cows, pigeons, chickens, donkeys, and
sheep, externally.
Ring-worm, felons. Human ordure, externally ; menstrual blood,
ORDURE AND URINE IN" MEDICINE. 319
externally ; the excreta of geese, cows, sows, cats, sheep, goats, or
chickens, externally.
Itch, freckles, rash, tetter, etc. Geese-dung, internally ; the excreta
of donkeys, dogs, chickens, crocodiles, foxes, or pigeons, externally.
Loss of hair, lice. Human urine, externally ; the excreta of pigeons,
cats, rats, mice, swallows, geese, rabbits, or goats, externally.
Gangrene. The urine of a virgin, externally ; the white dung of
chickens, or horse-dung, externally.
Colds. Human ordure and urine, externally ; the excreta of sheep,
cows, bulls, chickens, hogs, pigeons, or horses, externally.
Warts. The patients own urine, externally ; the excreta of dogs,
sheep, camels, goats, cows, calves, or of a black dog, externally.
Fissure of the rectum, bunions, corns. The excreta of dogs, hogs,
sheep, pigeons, chickens, goats, mice, or of cows, gathered in May,
externally.
Fistula. Human ordure, externally ; the dung of dogs and mice,
internally.
Yellow jaundice. Take internally the oil of human excrements, or
drink human urine for nine days (pp. 132, 133).
Bloody flux. Human excrements dried, taken internally, are of great
benefit (pp. 108, 109).
Insomnia. Take the " Spiritus Urinae " internally.
Fits or spasms. Take the urine of young boys internally (pp. 28
and 29.)
" Take an old rusty piece of iron, be it a horse-shoe or anything
else ; lay it on the fire until it be red-hot ; then take it out of the fire
and let the patient make water upon it and take the fume thereof at
his nose and mouth, using this three days together, and it will cure
him (of yellow jaundice)." — ("The Poor Man's Physician," John
Moncrief, Edinburgh, 1716, p. 174.)
" For running ulcers of the head . . . bathe the whole head with
old urine." — (Idem, p. 66.)
" To provoke flow of urine . . . neat's dung, mixt with honey,
made hot, applied to the share bone." — (Idem, p. 133.)
For stone in bladder, "mouce-dung drunk." — (Idem, p. 131.)
"The dung, flesh, and haire of a hare drunk." — (Idem, p. 131.)
" Goat's-dung drunk ... for the space of three days." (Jaundice.)
— (Idem, p. 116.)
"Goat's-dung, if drunk, brought back the catameuia." — (Idem,
p. 141.)
320 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
"Goose and hen dung, drunk with the best wine, miraculously
cureth sudden suffocations of the mother." — (Idem, p. 144.)
"For a perverse or froward mother (i.e., womb), apply stinking
smells to the privities, and sweet smells to the nose." — (Idem,
pp. 144, 151.)
" For the squinsy • . . take the dung of a hog, newly made and as
hot as you can get it, . . . apply to the place, and it cureth."
— (Idem, p. 172.)
" For all imposthemes . . . the dung of a goose which had first
fasted three days, and then fed on an eel before being killed," was
applied externally. — (Idem, p. 180.)
" For swellings behind the ears, . . . goat-dung, boiled," was ap-
plied as a plaster. — (Idem, p. 84.)
For boils, carbuncles, etc., "an emplaister made of the dung of a
peacock cureth faithfully." — (Idem, p. 1G3.)
"For the cure of fistula, ' man's-dung and pepper' were to be ap-
plied externally; goat's-dung externally; dove's-dung was to be drunk
in goat's-milk ; the juice of cow-dung, in wine, was to be cast into the
fistula, and a plaster of the same was to be applied." — (Idem,
pp. 165, 1GG.)
" Qui mane jejune, per novem dies, bibit propriam urinam non pati-
etur epilepsiam, paralysim, nee colicam, et qui bibit propriam urinam
sanabitur a sumpto veneno." — (Idem, pp. 1G9, 170.)
" D'apres le temoignage de Charles Lancilotti, Pacqua di stereo
humano pigliata in una calante por lo spation di nuove giorni sana
quelli che patiscono il male caduco." (Voyez Guida alia Chimica.)
— ("Bib. Scatalogica," p. 29.)
Schurig's " Chylologia," published in Dresden, 1725, contains cita-
tions from nearly seven hundred authorities. As these are nearly all
of very ancient date, and only in a few cases accessible to scholars
restricted to American libraries, this learned work of Schurig becomes
all the more valuable to such as desire to study intelligently and
profoundly this subject of the use of human and animal excreta in
religious rites or in religious medicine.
Some of the writers quoted by Schurig favor, others oppose tho
medical employment of the human excretions. Among those in favor
of it, according to him, may be seen the names of Galen and Dioscor-
ides. In Schurig's day there seems to have been much opposition
developing, especially when other remedies were available ; although
Schurig says that the Dutch soldiers returning from the Indies spoke
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 321
in praise of what they had seen there of the use of such medicaments.
Among European practitioners, human ordure was employed alone,
mixed with water or other ingredients, or a water and an oil were
distilled from it.
It would be a useless task to repeat the names of all the authorities
mentioned by this learned German, or to give in detail all the pre-
scriptions in which the alvine dejecta figure as components. Their
insertion here would add nothing to the value of these notes, as they
are strictly pharmaceutical in their spirit ; it may, however, be of
some interest to the student to learn just what diseases were supposed
to be amenable to this course of treatment, and just how the curatives
were to be administered.
For angina pectoris, the ordure passed by a young boy after eating
lupines, to be taken internally (p. 758). For the same disease there
were other recipes for ordure in pills, plasters, and decoctions, as well
as for electuaries of ordure, to be blended with honey (p. 756).
For bringing boils, ulcers, etc., to a head, for sprains, luxations,
etc., a poultice of human ordure, applied hot, was considered the best
specific (p. 757).
For rheumatic gout, a hot poultice of human ordure was considered
of value (p. 757).
Renal calculi. "Aqua ex stercore distillata" was given internally
(p. 757). For cancers and malign ulcers, human ordure was used as
a local poultice ; also given internally, in pills or powders. Pope
Benedict was cured of a cancer by this treatment (pp. 758, 759).
Epilepsy. Peacock-dung was used internally in conjunction with
human ordure (p. 762).
Erysipelas was treated with a poultice of human ordure (p. 762).
" Oleum ex stercore distillatum " was also given internally (p. 762).
Cicatrices, small-pox pustules. Bathe with " aqua ex stercore dis-
tillata " (p. 760).
Gangrene, cured by application of warm ordure and urine (p. 763).
Dropsy ; use " aqua ex stercore distillata " internally (p. 764).
Yellow jaundice, by human ordure drunk in wine (p. 764). Here
he quotes Paullini, and others with whom we are already familiar.
Piles. Plaster of human ordure (p. 766). The same method of
treatment for tumors (p. 777).
Ping-worm and other skin diseases. Use " oleum ex stercore "
internally (p. 766).
21
322 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Inflammation of the breasts of young mothers ; local application
of human ordure (p. 767).
Burns and scalds. " Aqua ex stercore " locally (p. 760). Inflam-
mations, ditto (p. 766).
Dysentery. "Aqua ex stercore" internally (p. 761), quoting
Paullini.
Empyematis. "Oleum ex stercore," internally (p. 761).
Epilepsy. " Cured and prevented by " excrement, iufantis," inter-
nally (p. 761).
For all fevers. Ordure, mixed with honey, internally, quoting
Paulliui (pp. 762, 763).
Fistula in ano or in lachryma. Local application of human ordure
(p. 763).
Birth-marks were effaced by a plaster of human ordure, or of me-
conium (p. 771).
Ophthalmia, cataract, etc. Human ordure, applied as a plaster.
Also, "aqua ex stercore distillata," internally (p. 771).
Toothache. Plaster of human ordure, mixed with powdered cham-
omile flowers, quoting Paullini (p. 772).
(Ederaa. Plaster of human ordure and of cow-dung (p. 772).
Felous. Plaster of human ordure. Also, one of the same, mixed
with assafcetida, quoting Paullini (p. 772).
Hysteria. Human ordure, drunk in wine (p. 773).
Bites of mad dogs, serpents, and all wild animals. Ordure, or
" oleum ex stercore distillatum," or " aqua ex stercore distillata," in-
ternally (pp. 767, 768).
In the island of Manilla, human ordure was held in such high esti-
mation as a remedy for the cure of the bites of all venomous animals,
that it was earned fresh, or dessicated, in little pyxes or pouches sus-
pended from the neck, ready for instant use. An example is given,
on the authority of a Franciscan friar, for years a missionary in that
country, of a man so bitten, and so near death that he could not open
his mouth, whose teeth were pried asunder, and this remedy inserted.
He recovered immediately.
Human ordure was also used internally, in Mexico, for the cure
of serpent bites, as we have learned previously from other sources,
(p. 767.)
For worms in the head. "Oleum ex stercore distillatum," applied
locally (p. 777).
Poisons. Human ordure, internally (pp. 777, 778).
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 323
For wounds occasioned by poisoned weapons, in the island of Ma-
cassar, human ordure was administered internally, until vomiting was
induced. The same treatment was observed in Armenia, while in
Celebes it was the recognized antidote against vegetable poisons,
quoting Paullmi (pp. 778, 77'J).
Plague. Human ordure and human urine were mixed together,
and taken internally, to cure or prevent the plague. Human ordure
was also taken alone, in the form of pills, and applied to plague buboes
as a plaster. Schurig says he personally knew a certain clergyman in
Dresden, in 1680, who took such pills with good effect (p. 775).
Scabs and tetter, local applications of "oleum ex stercore distil."
(p. 776).
Pleurisy, "01. ex sterc. dist," internally (p. 774).
Gout. Human ordure as a plaster, and also internally (p. 775) ; here
he again cites Paulliui, among others not known to us.
SCHURIO'S IDEAS REGARDING THE USE IN MEDICINE OF THE EGEST.E
OF ANIMALS.
Schurig devotes the fourteenth chapter of his work to a treatise "De
Stercoribus Brutorum." It is unnecessary to enter much into detail
upon this point ; it will be sufficient to give only a small number of
the recipes, with notes upon the manner of administering, and, where
possible, the opinions expressed in regard to their efficacy.
From these we may be enabled to form some idea of the line of medi-
cal thought of the ancient practitioners.
Beginning with goose-dung, we find it commended as warm and
drying in its effects ; an aperient and endowed with power over the
menses ; also over the after-birth and urine ; and hence of value in
jaundice, scurvy, and dropsy. It was also employed in many other
diseases, principally in fevers, in whooping-cough, in cachexy, liver
troubles, and when applied externally as a plaster, was of such value
in the treatment of sore eyes that the Emperor Maximilian resorted
to its use with the greatest advantage ; again, applied as a plaster, it
was used in angina and in mammary cancer. The dung of young
geese was regarded as the best, and it should be gathered when possi-
ble in the early spring, preferably in the month of March, while
still " green," on the meadows ; most of the old prescriptions insist
upon this, as will be seen from the sample given in this paragraph.
The dose of the dried powder was from half a dram to a full dram,
324 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
and it was administered in wine, or mixed with cinnamon and sugar.
It was frequently combined with hen-dung, or diluted with the
urine of she-goats or he-calves. Some practitioners doubted whether
it was superior to dove-dung for the same diseases. When used in
whooping-cough or throat swellings, it was placed under the tongue
of the patient. The following are the words with which Schurig begins
his panegyric upon its virtues : —
" Calefacit et siccat vehementer ; iucidit, aperit ; menses, secundinas,
et urinas potenter movet ; hinc maximi usus est in morbo regio, scor-
buto, et hydrope."
tt:
Stercor. Anserin. vern. temp, collect, et in Sole exsic.
Pull. Gallinac. — ana. 3i.
Absinth. 9ii.
Cinnamoni. 9i.
Sacchar. §ij. — M. ft. Pulv. subtiliss.
Asses' dung was considered by Schurig to be an especially good
remedy in all diseases of hemorrhage. " Singulare remedium contra
quamvis haemorrhagias " (p. 800) ; but it had to be collected in the
month of May ; " Stercus asininum in Majo collectum." It was to be
taken in doses of one or more drachms, or only the juice squeezed from
it into some medicinal water.
Dried in the sun, or in a warm place, it was good for bleeding at the
nose ; " ad solem vel in loco calido exsiccetur et fiat pulvis qui per
nares attractus subito illarum haemorrhagias compescit." It was re-
garded as an infallible remedy for restraining an excessive menstrual
flow. " Infallibile remedium ad constringeudum fluxum menstruum
esse stercus asininum . . . asserit Johannes Petrus Albrechtus."
This dung was also in great vogue in all cases of uterine inflamma-
tion, applied locally as a plaster. It was administered both internally
and externally for gout of the feet, and used as a component of a
plaster for dropsy. It was given internally for colic. Collected in the
month of May, it was administered internally to dissolve calculi.
" Stercus bubulum mense Majo collectum miram pra:bet aquam adver-
sus Calculos, quos solvit et una urinam movet, quam nigram prima die
pellit, calculis vehementer attritis. Hrec aqua in officinis vocatur om-
nium florum." This water, known ofncinally as " water of all-flowers,"
was used in attacks of plague, and in cases of gangrene, inflammation,
rheumatism, etc. ; also in dropsy and in cancerous ulcers (p. 800
et seq.).
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 325
Schurig devotes considerable space to the dung of dogs, called by
some " Flowers of Melampius," and by others by the " more honest
name of album Graecum." " Stercus cauiuum, quod nonnulli llores
Melampi, pharmacopoei autem houestiore uomiue album Graecum vo-
cant (to differentiate it from the black, which was the dung of mice),
ad differentials nigri, quod est muscerda" (p. 803).
He believed that it was in its effects " drying, cleansing, solvent,
an aperient, a dissipater of swellings, such as carbuncles, a solver of
ulcers, — hence useful in dysentery, in epilepsy, colic, and such com-
plaints, as well as in angina, guttse, malignant ulcers, hard tumors,
dropsy, warts, etc." " Siccat, abstergit, discutit, aperit, apostemata
runipit, exulceratione abstergit, hiuc utile est in Dysenteria, quin etiam
in Epilepsia, dolore colico, et similibus ; " also "in angina;, gutturi, ul-
ceribus malignis, tumores duros, hydropicas, verrucas, etc." Also in
fistulas, inflammation of the tonsils, etc. It was applied exteruallj-
to malignant ulcers by being sprinkled upon them, or as a plaster ;
applied also as a plaster in dropsy. It was used in combination with
the dung of swallows (" stercus hirundinum "), or of owls (" nocture ")
Used as a gargle in throat trouble (pp. 803-807).
" Album Gnecum " was considered best when obtained from " white "
dogs, as they were supposed to have the soundest constitutions. This
was especially the case in the treatment of epilepsy (p. 80). Here we
have a very decided trace of " Color Symbolism."
" Album Grrecum " was taken, preferentially, from dogs which, for
at least three days previously, had been nourished on hard bones, with
the least possible amount of water to drink ; such dung was hard, white,
and of faint odor, "durum, album, nee graviter olet." Some of the
prescriptions call for the dung of a fasting dog ; "stercum cauis per
jejunium emaciati " (p. 80G).
Schurig tells us that the dung of the goat was used both internally
and externally in medicine. It was believed to be efficacious iu the
expulsion of calculi, in the reduction of hard tumors, in the dissipation
of tetter, ring-worm, scald, leprosy, abscesses behind the ears, bites of
serpents and other wild animals, iu the restriction of excessive cata-
menial flow, etc. It was applied as a plaster in the treatment of tu-
mors in the limbs, swellings of the testicles, in gout, oedema, cancer,
inflammatory rheumatism, carbuncles, atrophy of the muscles, tumors
in the mammse, etc. But when made into a plaster, was frequently
mixed with the patient's own urine (p. 809).
Schurig pronounces it a rubefacient ; it was of use in alleviating
326 SCATALOGIO RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
rheumatic pains, headache, vertigo, pains' in side, shoulders, brain, and
loins, colic, apoplexy, lethargy ; it was supposed to be able to dissolve
scrofulous and all other tumors, and was beneficial in the treatment of
gout ; used internally, it expelled dropsical water through the urine
and also dissolved calculi ; as a plaster, it was used in the cure of the
bites of mad dogs ; likewise for scald head ; internally, the Austrian
midwives employed it in the treatment of hysteria ; while, through-
out Germany, it was administered in cases of suppression of the menses
(p. 809 el seq.).
As to horse-dung, Schurig has to say that either it or the juice
extracted from it was drunk to aid in easing the pains of colic, to assist
in the expulsion of the placenta, or of a dead foetus, or in cases of stran-
gulation of the uterus ; externally, it was believed to be serviceable in
restraining eruptions of the blood. To he of the greatest medicinal
value, this dung should be taken from a stallion fed on oats. It was
regarded as of great value in developing small-pox pustules upon women
and children (p. 812 el seq.).
A rustic remedy which seems to have had a wide dissemination, for
the alleviation of the cramp-colic, was composed of the juice expressed
from horse-dung, mixed with warm beer, taken internally, while at the
same time there was applied to the region of the umbilicus a plas-
ter of warm horse-dung and hot ashes ; such a plaster was employed
in the cure of pleurisy among the English. In the same disease a
mixture of warm horse-dung and beer was taken both internally and
externally.
Cat-dung, in wine, formed the remedy in cases of vertigo and epi-
lepsy. While its use was recommended principally in external appli-
cations, there were not wanting those who relied upon it mainly in
internal application. It was reputed to possess especial efficacy in
loss of hair, and supposed to be serviceable in preventing baldness,
applied as an unguent. Administered internally, it suppressed immod-
erate menstrual flow. For the cure of felons, which so many in those
days believed to be occasioned by a small worm, it was of certain effi-
cacy, if bound round the afflicted thumb or finger. Paullini is quoted
as having had personal experience with felons thus cured. But Paul-
lini himself was of opinion that the dung of the goose was of equal
value with that of the cat in this case (p. 815).
Hen-dung was recommended for use in burns. It was regarded as
beneficial against magic philters, " in specie ex sanguine menstruo
fcemineo." It was considered good for all those ailments for which
ORDCRE AND URINE IX MEDICINE. 327
dove-dung was prescribed, but was not quite so efficacious. It was ex-
cellent for colic, for uterine pangs, yellow jaundice, calculus, suppres-
sion of urine, for all pains in the bowels, for strangling of the womb
and pains therein, for poison, witchcraft, for seat-worms, etc. Exter-
nally, it was applied for all sores in the eyes, ulcers, warts, cicatrices,
piles, pains in the feet and arms (pp. 816, 817).
Swallow-dung is mentioned as of internal and external application.
It was regarded of great efficacy in the treatment of mad-dog bites,
quarteruary fevers, colic, inflammation of the kidneys, etc. It was ap-
plied as a plaster in cases of headache, angina, inflammation of the ton-
sils, and as a suppository in relaxation of the rectum. Its efficacy was
conceded in dyeing the hair, being invaluable when used frequently as
an unguent. Etmuller is quoted as expressing the opinion that they
owe their action to the presence of " Armouiacal " salts. The swallow's
nest, with all its contents, was also sometimes ground up into a plaster,
and swallow-dung itself was occasionally substituted for "album
Gioecum " (pp. 817 et seq.).
Lion-dung exerted its potency in cases of difficult labor, and it was
the panacea against epilepsy and apoplexy. One of the Grand Dukes
of Austria was cured of epilepsy by its use. Preference was given to
the excrement of a female lion, except where she had just brought
forth young. An anti-epileptic remedy of great repute was composed
of burnt crow's-nest, burnt tortoise, burnt human skulls, linden-tree
bark, and lion-dung, made into an infusion by long digestion in spirits
of wine (pp. 819, 820).
Leopard's dung dissolved calculi ; was taken as a potion for the cure
of dysentery ; applied as a plaster for the cure of burns ; hernia was
cured by a bolus composed of leopard's dung, human mummy, burnt
worms, syrup, and other ingredients. The ashes of the dung, skin,
and hair of the leopard, iu combination, expelled calculi. This remedy
should be druuk, dissolved in wine ; it was also a sure remedy for the
most obstinate cases of colic. It was applied externally in sciatica,
also in constriction of the vulva, and was employed to facilitate con-
ception. In the last-named instance pastilles (trochisci) were like-
wise made and the parts fumigated. Or a pessary was inserted and
kept in place for three days and nights; "et quamvis antea sterilis
fuerit, deinceps tamen concipiet." To prevent falling out of eye-
lashes and eye-brows, an ointment was prepared of which the dung of
the leopard was an ingredient. Finally, it was in esteem as an aphro-
disiac, and to expel wind from the womb (p. 820).
32S SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Wolf-dung, drunk in wine, or taken as a powder, in doses of one
scruple or more, was used in the treatment of the colic. Paulliui is
quoted as recommending its use in fevers. The dung of wolves, as
of dogs, should, if possible, be that which is white in color, dejected by
animals which have been feeding upon bones, and deposited upon
rocks, thorns, bushes, or the lower branches of trees, but not on the
ground. It was employed internally in pains in the limbs, and admin-
istered, also internally, in form of powder, in attacks of vertigo.
Desiccated, it was blown into eyes afflicted with cataract. The cavities
of carious teeth were filled with wolf-dung, to ease the pains of tooth-
ache. For nasal hemorrhage, the smoke of burning wolf-dung was
snuffed up into the nostrils ; but another prescription was to drink an
infusion of wolf-dung iu red wine. If sheep detected the odor of wolf-
dung about their paddocks, or folds, they would behave as if bewitched,
running from side to side, bleating and showing as much terror as if
their arch-enemy, the wolf, was himself at hand. Knowing this fact,
rascally mountebanks were wont to perpetrate tricks upon the ignorant
and unsuspecting rustics, by secreting some of this dung in the stable
with the ewes and lambs, frightening them out of their wits, and then
persuading their masters that their flocks were suffering from some
hidden ailment for the cure of which they would demand a big fee in
money or fat sheep.
Schurig recommends the use of mouse-dung, both internally and ex-
ternally, for various disorders, for constipation in children, for scald
head, and dandruff, in which cases it was applied as an ointmeut, for
the elimination of calculi in kidneys and bladder, for all swellings in
the fundament, piles, warts, tumors iu ano, hemorrhages of the lungs,
for the suppression of the menses, and even to excite the growth of the
beard. "When taken internally, it was administered in broth, milk, or
panada ; externally, it was made into a plaster with butter and such
ingredients. It was at times mixed with the dung of sparrows (p. 823
et seq.).
Sheep-dung figures in medicinal preparations, to be used either in-
ternally or externally. Internally, as a decoction, in yellow jaundice,
obstructions and constipation of the bowels, and in small-pox. Also
as a .specific in the cure of gonorrhoea, when given in form of pills.
For pains in the intestines, for swellings, burns, and ingrowing toe-
nails, it was applied as a plaster (p. 826 et seq.).
Peacock-dung, the great specific in all cases of epilepsy and vertigo,
was administered in doses of one dram, and in France was held in
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 329
high repute for such purposes. It should be used from the new to the
full moon, and be taken in white wine (p. 828).
This paragraph about the medicinal value of the droppings of the
peacock deserves more than a cursory glance ; in it we have a strong
suggestion of the former association of this bird with moon worship.
The peacock, we know, was the bird that drew the car of Juno, and
that goddess was as much a lunar deity as Diana.
Pig-dung or swine-dung appears as one of the remedies, of both
internal and external application, for nasal hemorrhage, and uterine
flux. For nasal hemorrhages, it was dried and reduced to powder, and
drawn up into the nostrils as a sort of snuff. Applied, externally,
■warm, to the vulva, it was regarded as an aid in hemorrhage of the
uterus ; it was also given internally for the same purpose. It was not
used exclusively for such hemorrhages, but had a great repute as a
styptic in general, and was applied to wounds of all descriptions. It
was therefore used both externally and internally for the suppression
of excessive menstrual flow, and taken internally to restrain spitting of
blood. It was of general use in the treatment of felons, and was also
regarded as an invaluable febrifuge.
For nasal hemorrhage, it was occasionally bound round the temples.
Oddly enough, it was believed to be a remedy for fetor of breath.
" Alii miscent stercus porcinum exsiccatum, cum pulvere rosarum pro
corrigeudo fcetore " (p. 830 et seq.).
As an external application for tumors of all kinds, cow-dung had a
host of advocates, who likewise extended its use to the cure of scrofu-
lous sores. For scrofulous wens, there was a cataplasm made of a com-
position of various dungs, — those of the cow, goat, and doves, among
others. This was also to be taken internally, in white wine.
A plaster of cow-dung was used in gout of the feet. The dung of
grass-fed cows was considered excellent for tumors, etc. ; but its effi-
cacy was increased when mixed with cow-urine or the urine of the
patient himself; this was also in request for the treatment of oedema.
For the stings of bees and wasps, a plaster of cow-dung was frequently
used : " Contra apum et vesparum ictus, stercus vaccinum cum aceto
utiliter adhibetur " (p. 837). The dung of a black cow, burned and
given in scruple doses to a newly born child, preserved it from epilepsy
and consumption ; it was also employed to mitigate the pains of den-
tition. The dung of bulls and cows, collected in the month of May,
distilled with water, made a panacea for kidney diseases ; it also ex-
pelled calculi and induced a flow of urine.
330 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Htec aqua vocatur aqua omnium florum," was employed both in-
ternally and externally in gangrene, inflammations, rheumatism, spasms,
dropsy, suppression of urine, etc., and was used externally to remove
freckles and as a general cosmetic. — (" Chylologia," p. 835 et seq.)
In the "Complete English Physician," London, 1730, there are
recipes which include the dung of geese, dogs, doves, horses, peacocks,
hogs, and cows.
In the " Complete English Dispensatory " of John Quincy, London,
1730, p. 307, under the head "Distillation of Urine," it is alleged that
the salts obtained from the urine " of a sound young man, newly
made," was beneficial in rheumatism and arthritis. " Urina hominis, —
urine of a man. Some have got a notion of this being good for the
scurvy, and drink their own water for that end, but I cannot see with
what reason. Some commend it boiled into the consistence of honey,
for rheumatic paint, rubbing it onto the part affected ; in which case
it may do good, because it cannot but be very penetrating. . . . Urina
vacca?, — cow piss. Some drink this as a purge. It will operate vio-
lently, but it is practised only among the ordinary people, and has
nothing in its virtues to prefer it to more convenient and cleauly medi-
cines, any more than the former " (pp. 248, 249).
Father Du Halde says of camel's dung : " When it is dried and re-
duced to a powder, it will stop bleeding of the nose by being blown
into it." — (Chinese recipes given in Du Halde's " History of China,"
London, 1736, vol. iv. p. 34.)
" The dung (of sheep) is a prevalent medicine against the jaundice,
dropsy, cholick, pleurisy, spleen, stone, gravel, scurvy, etc., taken either
in powder, tincture, or decoction. The dung, made into a cataplasm
with camphire, sal armouiack, and a little wine, opens, digests, at-
tenuates and eases pain. It is excellent in abscesses about the ears
and other emunctories, swellings in women's breasts, pain of the spleen,
and gout." — (Pomet, " History of Drugs," English translation, Lon-
don, 1738, p. 256.)
The rare and erudite pamphlet of Samuel Augustus Flemming, "De
Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis," Erfurt, 1 738, although con-
taining not more than thirty-two pages, is filled with a mass of curious
information upon subjects generally disregarded. Flemming remarks
that those who could use urine, calculi, and things of that kind in
medical practice, should not shrink from the employment of ordure as
well. "And it is truly wonderful," he says, "that a substance, the
very aspect and odor of which are sufficient to induce an inevitable
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 331
nausea, should be regarded not merely as a matter of curiosity and
study, but held iu the highest repute as a unique and most precious
treasure for the preservation of health."
Yet Paracelsus, and others of his school, knowing the natural re-
pugnance to the acceptance of such medicines, prepared it under the
name of " Zibethutn Occidentalis," and administered it in doses of
from one to two drams, given iu honey or wine, to ward off attacks of
fever ; by others, it was employed as a plaster in cases of throat-
inflammation, being then called " Aureum." Others again were of the
opinion, from an examination of its chemical nature, that it was fairly
entitled to a place in the Materia Medica. An oil and water were dis-
tilled from it, and used in ocular sores, corrosive ulcers, and all sorts
of fistulas ; for affections of the scalp, for the ulcers of erysipelas, for
ring-worm and tetter, and especially the pains of gout. Finally, it was
believed by many to be of exceptional efficacy in the cure of the plague,
being taken internally.
" Qui urina, calculi ct aliis delectantur, non a stercore ipso abhorre-
bunt," etc. The full citation in Latin need not be repeated, as it is
expressed in much the same manner as the views of Sclmrig, Paulini,
Etmuller, Bcckherius, aud others on the same subject. He cites
Zaoutua Lusitanus Poterus and Johannes Anglicanus, neither of whose
writings are to be found in America.
Speaking of human urine, Flemming says that physicians boasted
not only of their ability to diagnose disease from urine, but to use the
fluid itself in the treatment of disease. It was employed in two ways :
cither in the raw state, as emitted from the person in due course of
nature, or in chemical preparations extracted from it. It was often
administered with beneficial results in dropsy as an enema. In diffi-
cult labor, a draught of the husband's urine taken warm brought easy
and safe delivery.
A drink of the patient's own urine was highly commended in hys-
teria. As an external application for the eradication of dandruff, scab,
and other scalp troubles, it was held in high esteem among the com-
mon people.
A salt and a spirit were prepared from urine by distillation, and
highly spoken of in the treatment of frenzy, mania, and kindred mental
infirmities of a grave type.
Flemming quotes from Beckherius, whose writings have already
been presented, and from Quercetanus, in " Pharmac. dogniat.,"
p. 119.
332 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
(''De Eemediis ex Corpore Humano desurntis," Samuel Augustus
Flemrning, Erfurt, p. 24 et seq.)
In the " Physiological Memoirs of Surgeon-General Hammond, U. S.
Army," New York, 1863, a chapter is devoted to uraemic intoxication,
or the exhilaration produced by the entrance into the blood of urine,
either injected or abnormally absorbed. This part of the subject
should be carefully scrutinized by medical experts, whose determina-
tions may make known whether or not the drunken frenzy of the Zuiii
dancers could be attributed to the unnatural beverage exclusively or
to that in combination with other intoxicants.
Dunglison says : " Human urine was at one time considered aperi-
ent ; and was given in jaundice in the dose of one or two ounces.
Cow's urine, urina vaccte, all-flower water, was once used, warm from
the cow, as a purge." — (" Dunglison's Medical Dictionary," Philadel-
phia, Pa., 1860, article " Urine.")
In the " Lancet," October, 1880, p. 56, Mr. G. F. Masterman draws
attention to the chemical analysis of beef tea, and shows that it is
aualogous to urine, excepting that it contains less urea and uric acid.
"Many writers have endeavored to impress the public and the profes-
sion with the true value of beef tea, viz., that it is not a nutrient but
a stimulant, and that it mainly contains excrementitious materials." —
("Beef Tea, Liebig's Extract, Extractum Carnis, and Urine," Richard
Neale, M. D., in the " Practitioner," London, November, 1881, p. 3-13
et seq.)
"In South America urine is a common vehicle for medicine, and
the urine of little boys is spoken highly of as a stimulant in malignant
small-pox. Among the Chinese and Malays of Batavia urine is very
freely used. One of the worst cases of epistaxis ceased after a pint of
fresh urine was drunk, although it had for thirty-six hours or more
resisted every form of European mediciue. This was by no means an
unusual result of the use of urine, as I was informed by many of the
natives. ... As a stimulant and general pick-up, I have frequently
seen a glass of child's or a young girl's urine tossed off with great gusto
and apparent benefit. The use of urate of ammonia and guano was
noticed by Bauer in 1852, who found their external use of value in
phthisis, lepra, morphose, and other obstinate skin diseases. Dr.
Hasting's report of the value of the excreta of reptiles in 1862, in
the treatment of phthisis, will also he fresh in the recollection of the
older members of the profession." — (Idem.)
Some of the tribes of Central Africa use human urine as an invigor-
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 333
ant during the fever season, much as Europeans employ quinine. —
(Rev. Mr. Chatelain, missionary in Angola, Africa.)
" The people of Angola apply fresh urine to all cuts and bruises." —
("Muhongo," African boy from Angola, West Africa, in personal in-
terview with Captain Bourke, translated by Rev. Mr. Chatelain, mis-
sionary.)
ORDURE AND URINE IN FOLK-MEDICINE.
Excrementitious remedies are still to be met with in the folk-medi-
cine of various countries ; indeed, the problem would be to determine
in what country of the world at the present day the more ignorant
classes do not still use them. The extracts to be now given will show
that folk-medicine still retains a hold upon medicaments the use of
which is generally believed to have passed away with the centuries.
" I never had an opportunity of seeing the following deed, but it was
many times asserted to me by serious persons : In our province, Brit-
tany, when somebody in the peasantry has a cheek swollen by the
effects of toothache, a very good remedy is to apply upon the swollen
cheek, as a poultice, freshly expelled cow-dung, and even human dung,
just expelled and still smoking, which is considered as much more ef-
ficient."— (Personal letter from Captain Henri Jouan, French Navy,
Cherbourg, France, July 29, 1888.)
" Dans nos pays, on ne connait pas, contre les piqures, do gnepes et
autres insectes, venimeux, et contre les brulures caustiques, de l'Urtica
Ureus, de meilleur remede que l'application de l'urinc." — (Personal
letter from Dr. Bernard, Cannes, France, August, 1888.)
In describing the medicine of the Samoans, Turner says : " On some
occasions mud and even the most unmentionable tilth was mixed up
and taken as an emetic draught." — (London, 1884, p. 139, "Samoa.")
" Maw-wallop. A filthy composition, sufficient to provoke vomit-
ing." — (Grose, " Diet, of Buckish Slang," London, 1811.)
" In Fayette County an emetic for croup is made by mixing urine
and goose-grease, and administering internally, and also rubbing some
of the mixture over the throat and breast." — ("Folk-Lore of the
Pennsylvania Germans," Hoffmau, in " Journal of American Folk-Lore,"
Cambridge, Mass., January-March, 1889, p. 28.)
For incised wounds use human urine as a lotion ; for lacerated
wounds apply human excrement. — (Sagen-Marchen, Volksaberglau-
ben, aus Schwaben, Freiburg, 1861, p. 4S7.)
" Horse-dung and beer " are mentioned as the remedy used in Eng-
334 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
land and France for the cure of " exceeding faiutness." — (See Black,
"Folk-Medicine," London, 1883, pp. 152, 153, quoting Floyer and De
La Pryne.)
Among the many quaint recipes preserved in the Materia Medica of
English physicians down almost to our own day we find that pigeon's
dung was used " to make a cataplasm against scrophulous and other
like hard tumors ; ... for an ointment against baldness ; ... for a
cataplasm to ripen a plague sore ; ... to make a powder against the
stone." — (John Mathews Eaton, " Treatise on Breeding Pigeons,"
London, pp. 39, 40, quoting Dr. Salmon.)
Wolf-duug recommended in the treatment of colic. — (Black, " Folk-
Medicine," p. 54.)
"A decoction of sheep's dung and water was used in recent times
in Scotland for whooping-cough and in cases of jaundice." — (Idem,
p. 1G7.)
On the same page Black shows that the same remedy was exten-
sively employed in Ireland in the treatment of the measles.
" In the south of Hampshire a plaster of warm cow-dung is applied
to open wounds." — (Idem, p. 1G1.)
"Water of cow-dung," collected in May and June, used as a purge
by people in England. — (Southey, "Commonplace Book," p. 554.)
On the same page he says that " man's excrement which had been
some days discharged, thinned with so much ale," was given to horses
with the blind staggers, — "a common experiment." — (Idem.)
A poultice of pigeon's dung and pounded rose-leaves was in use for
a stitch in the side. — (Southey, "The Doctor," London, 1848, p. 59.)
Swine's dung as a remedy for dysentery in Ireland, alluded to in
terms of high approval by Borlase, quoted by Southey in " Common-
place Book," p. 149.
Hon. E. W. P. Smith, secretary of the United States Legation in the
Republic of Colombia, South America, states that among the San
Bias Indians of that country, and the lower classes generally, the
patient's own urine is applied warm for sore eyes.
Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, of Cambridge, Mass., has for some years de-
voted time and intelligent study to the acquisition of data bearing upon
the superstitions connected with the human saliva. While making this
valuable and curious collection she has also beeu fortunate enough to
encounter much relating to kindred superstitions, and has very geu-
erously placed at the disposal of the author of this volume all that
related to the employment of human and animal egestae.
OKDURE AXD URIXE IS MEDICINE. boo
Urine a cure for chapped bands, on Deer Isle.
Urinate into your shoe to keep it from squeaking, on Deer Isle.
Sheep-dung tea, a cure for measles, is extensively used on Deer
Isle.
Boys urinate on their legs to prevent cramp. This practice was
common in eastern Maine twenty to thirty years ago.
Water standing in the depressions of cow-dung was formerly recom-
mended as a certain cure for pulmonary consumption, in New York.
Oil tried from the penis of the hog and applied to the loins of a child
suffering from weakness of kidneys or bladder cured such diseases, in
northern parts of the United States and in parts of Nova Scotia.
Oue's own urine was administered for gravel in Staffordshire, Eng-
land, within the past ten years.
A woman in England was given her own urine to drink, after a severe
illness, to prevent " fits," in the preseut generation. A poultice of
fresh, warm cow-dung cured a man of rheumatism in New York.
Measles were cured by giving the patient a decoction of lamb's excre-
ments (locally called "nanny-beads"), in Brunswick, X. Y., about
1825. A newly born child was given a spoonful of woman's urine as
a laxative, in 1814, in St. Albans, Vt. The white, limy part of hen-
manure was used for canker-sores in mouth, in Abingdon, 111. Cow-
manure was used for swelled breasts in County Cork, Ireland. Sheep-
mauure tea was used for measles in County Cork, Ireland, and by the
negroes of Chestertown, Md. Sheep-dung tea for measles all over New
England, Ohio, and Cape Breton. Cow-dung, as fresh as possible,
plastered on iutlamed breasts, commonly known as " bealed " breasts,
within the last twenty-five years, on Cape Breton.
Similar excrementitious remedies are in use among the Pennsylvania
Germans. Cow-dung poultices are applied in the treatment of diph-
theria, or as lenitives in cases of sore or gathered breasts. " Tea made
of sheep-cherries (Gen. et spec?) is given for measles." — ("Folk-
Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans," in " Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc,"
1889.)
For reasons not ascertained, the use of these revolting medicaments
has nearly always been veiled under the language of euphemism.
Sheep-dung is rarely called by its own name, but always, as has been
shown in the preceding remarks, " sheep-nanny tea," etc. In the same
manner, the use of human excreta was veiled under the high-sounding
designations of " zibethum," "oriental sulphur," etc.
This use of sheep-dung in the treatment of measles must be very
336 SCATAL0G1C KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
ancient and wide-spread. Surgeon Washington Matthews notes its
existence among the Navajoes, who learned it from the Spaniards.
" Slight wounds are cured " by the application of dirt to the part
affected. — ("Nat. trib. of S. Australia," p. 284, received through the
kindness of the Roy. Soc. Sydney, N. S. Wales, T. B. Kyngdon,
Secretary.)
Mr. Chrisfield, of the Library of Congress, "Washington, D. C, states
that urine was a remedy for earache among people on eastern shore of
Maryland and Virginia ; while for the cure of jaundice, in New Eng-
land, " the spider, and even a more disagreeable remedy, is adminis-
tered in a spoonful of molasses." — (" Folk-Medicine," Black, London,
1883, p. 61, quoting Napier, "Folk-Lore," p. 95, and "Folk-Lore
Record," vol. i. p. 45.)
" I am impressed to tell you of a custom that prevailed to some ex-
tent among the people of this State (Iowa) ; this was the use of sheep-
dung for measles. The dung was made into what the old women
denominated 'tea,' and was familiarly known as 'sheep-nanny tea.'
It was believed to be siugularly efficacious in bringing out the erup-
tion. The mixture was sweetened with sugar, and thus disguised was
given to children. This practice was kept up among certain classes
until about twenty years ago ; I have not heard of it, at least in recent
years. I can trace the custom through the origin of the families in
which it was practised here to Indiana and North Carolina." — (Per-
sonal letter from Prof. S. B. Evans, Ottumwa, Iowa, to Captain Bourke,
April 16, 18S8.)
" I was told by an old person, now dead, that some fifty years since
the urine of a cow was given internally as a remedy for chlorosis, in
the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk." — (Personal letter from Prof.
Frank Rede Fowke to Captain Bourke, dated London, England, June
18, 1888.)
" In the country where I was born I have seen several times, when
a cow or an ox had one of its horns knocked away by a shock or any
other cause, people pissing into the honi before putting it again over
its root. This was supposed necessary to cause the horn to stick firmly
against the root." — (Personal letter from Captain Henri Jouan, French
Navy, Cherbourg, July 29, 18S8.)
" The presence of ammonia in the secretions (whose power of neu-
tralizing acids may have been accidentally discovered) may have had
something to do with the repute of the excretions of the kidneys. I
remember to have been told as a little boy of the virtues of urine as a
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 337
relief to chapped hands, also as a counter-irritant for inflamed eyes.
In the former case the ammonia would soften as an alkali ; in the lat-
ter, the salts present would act to reduce congestion, like common salt,
hy endosmosis.'' — (Personal letter from Prof. E. N. Horsford, Harvard
University, to Captain Bourke, April 19, 1888.)
" I have been recently informed, by a man who is acquainted with
the peculiarities of Parisian life, that there are men who are in the
habit of swallowing the scum which they obtain from the street urinals,
and that they are known as ' Les mangeurs du blanc." (Prof. Frank
Rede Fowke.) According to Parent du Chatelet, a " mangeur du
blanc" meant in Paris, until 1810, "a man who lived off the earnings
of a strumpet." The name has since been changed to "paillason."
(See "La Prostitution," Paris, 1857, vol. i. p. 138.
" When I was a boy we had in my father's house a gang of cats,
and I remember that frequently the people of Cherbourg came and
asked permission to search in our garrets for cat's dung, which,
they said, mixed and infused in white wine, produced a very efficient
drink against periodical fits of fever." — (Captain Henri Jouau, French
Navy.)
Lye-tea, made of human urine and lime-water, was used for colds by
the "old people" in the rural parts of Central New York." — (Con-
versation with Colonel Pierce, Dr. Pangborn, and Lieutenant W. G.
Elliott, IT. S. Army, at San Carlos Agency, Arizona.)
The savages of Australia apply to wounds the resin of the eucalyp-
tus, and also the bark of the same tree, previously steeped in human
urine. (Personal letter from John Mathew, Esq., M. A., to Captain
P»ourke, dated "The Manse," Coburg, Victoria, November, 1889.)
The same thing is referred to in " The Australian Pace," E. M. Curr,
Melbourne, 188G, vol. i. p. 256. In regard to the uses of the crust of
latrines, in connection with "mangeurs du blanc," see other pages of
tins volume.
•' Philos. ; hermet. ; urine du vin, le vinaigre. Urine des jeunes
coleriques Le Mercure Philosophe." Diet. Nationale, par M. Bes-
cherel, aine^ Paris, 1857, sub voc. Urine (p. 1573).
We have already been informed from Marco Polo that the prisoners
taken by the Tartars often poisoned themselves; "for which reason
the great lords haue dogs' dung ready, which they force them to swal-
low, and that forceth them to vomit the poyson " (in Purchas, vol. i.
p. 92) ; and we have also learned, from many sources, — Etmuller,
Schurig, Levinus Lemnius, Flemming, Paullini, Beckherius, Len-
22
338 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL XATIOXS.
tilius, — of the antidotal powers of the excreta. The existence of the
very same belief was detected among the natives of America.
Padre Inainma, whose interesting researches upon rattlesnake bites
and their remedies (made in Lower California, some time before the
expulsion of the Jesuits, in 17C7) are published in Clavigero,1 says
that the most usual and most efficacious antidote was human ordure,
fresh and dissolved in water, drunk by the person bitten.
Aloug the Isthmus of Darien the belief was prevalent among the
aborigines that the most efficacious remedy for poisoned arrows was
that which required the wounded man to swallow pills of his own
excrement.2
So in Peru, " when sucking infants were taken ill, especially if their
ailment was of a feverish nature, they washed them in urine in the
mornings, and when they could get some of the urine of the child,
they gave it a driuk." a
OCCDLT INFLUENCES ASCRIBED TO ORDURE AND URINE.
In Canada, human urine was drunk as a medicine. Father Sagard
witnessed a dance of the Hurons in which the young men, women,
and girls danced naked around a sick woman, into whose mouth one
of the young men urinated, she swallowing the disgusting draught in
the hope of being cured.4
Analogous medicaments may be hinted at in Smith's account of the
Araucauians of Chili : " Their remedies are principally if not entirely,
vegetable matter, though they administer many disgusting compounds
1 El remedio mas usual y eficaz es el de la triaca humana, asi llamada, para
mayor decencia, el excremeuto hnmano, fresco y disuelto en agua que hacen beber
al mordido. — (Clavigero, " Historia de la Baja California," Mexico, 1852.)
2 Decian que era el antidoto de esta poncona el Fuego i el agua del mar, la dieta
y contineneia. Y otra dicen que la hez del herido tomada en pildoras o eu otra
forma. (Herrera, "Decades," 2, lib. L pp. 3, 9, 10.) They used to say that the
antidotes for this poison were fire, sea-water, fasting, and continence. Another of
which thejT speak was the excrement of the wounded man, taken in form of pill or
otherwise.
3 Garcilasso de la Vega, " Comentarios Reales," Markham's translation, Ilak-
luyt Society, vol. xli. p. 186.
4 II se fit un jour une dance de tons les jeunes hommes, femmes et filles toutes
mies, en la presence d'une malade h la quelle il fallut (traict que je ne scay commen
excuser ou passer sous silence), qu'un de ces jeunes hommes luy pissast dans la
bouche et qu'elle auallast et beust cette eau, ce qu'elle fit avec un grand courage,
esperant en reccuoir guerison. — (Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," edition of Paris,
1885, p. 107.)
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 339
of animal matter, which they pretend are endowed with miraculous
powers." — (Smith, " Araucanians," New York, 1855, p. 234.)
Brand enumerates obsolete recipes, one of which (disease not men-
tioned) directed the patient to take "five spoonfuls of knave child
urine of an innocent." — (Brand, "Pop. Ant.," London, 1849, vol. iii.
p. 282.)
The Crees apply the dung of animals lately killed to sprains. — (See
"Mackenzie's Voyages," etc., to the Arctic Circle, London, 1800,
introd. p. 106.)
Henry M. Stanley says that, for the cure of certain ulcers due to
fly-blow, from which his men suffered, " Safeni, my coxswain on the
Victoria Nyanza, . . . adopted a very singular treatment, which I
must confess was also wonderfully successful. . . . This medicine con-
sisted of a powder of copper and child's urine, painted over the wound
with a feather twice a day." — (" Through the Dark Continent," New
York, 1878, vol. ii. p. 369.)
" It appeared that the dung of the donkey, rubbed on the skin, was
supposed to be a cure for rheumatism, and that this rare specific was
brought from a distant country in the East, where such animals exist.
— ("The Albert Nyanza," Sir Samuel Baker, Philadelphia, 1869,
p. 372.)
" The Mandingoes of Africa dress abscesses with cow's dung. — (See
Mungo Park's " Travels in Africa," in Pinkerton, vol. xvii. p. 877.
See, also, the edition of his works, " Travels in Africa," New York, etc.)
The author has seen cow-manure plastered with soothing effect upon
bee-stings in New Jersey.
" Pro remedio, in pluribus morbis urina foeminse externe applicata,
in eximia estimatione habetur." — (" The Native Tribes of South
Australia, Adelaide, 1879, introduction, xvi. See, also, Eyre, "Expe-
dition into Central Australia," London, 1845, ii. 300.)
" Pilgrim's Salve. A Sir-Reverence; human excrement." — (Grose,
"Dictionary of Buckish Slang," London, 1811.)
" The medicine-men of the Ove-herero, who live south of Angola
(which is ou the west coast of Africa), urinate over the sick, in order to
cure them." — (" Muhongo," interpretation by Rev. Mr. Chatelain.)
The Inuit medicine-man asperses the sick with human urine, "le
goupillone avec de vieilles urines, a l'instar des docteurs a poison
bochimans . . . les Cambodgieus aspergent e'galement le ddmon de
la petite-verole avec de Purine, mais cette urine est celle d'un cheval
blanc." — (Reclus, "Les Primitifs," p. 98.)
34:0 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" There are few cornplaiuts that the natives do not attempt to cure,
either by charms or by specific applications. Of the latter, a very
singular one is the application personally of the urine from a female, —
a very general remedy, and considered a sovereign one for most dis-
orders."— (Eyre, "Expedition into Central Australia," London, 1845,
vol. ii. p. 300 ; contributed by Prof. H. C. Henshaw, Bureau of Eth-
nology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.)
(See previous references to the therapeutics of the native Aus-
tralians in this volume.
" Plasters of mixed grass, butter, and cow-dung were placed on the
wounds " of sore-backed animals in Abyssinia. — ("A Visit to Abys-
sinia," W, Wiustauley, Loudon, 1881, vol. ii. p. 3.)
Cameron employed a native medicine-man, near Lake Tanganyika,
to treat one of his men who had injured his eye. " His treatment
consisted of a plaster of mud and dirt, and his fee was forty strings of
beads." — ("Across Africa," London, 1877, vol. i. p. 322. The word
" dirt," as used by Cameron in the above sentence, no doubt means
ordure.)
Mr. Stewart Culin, of Philadelphia, Penn., who has been making
careful investigations into the Chinese materia medica, states that
" frequent directions for the use of urine " are to be seen " among the
official remedies in the herbal." Only a few pages back, reference was
had to the use by the Chinese in Batavia of all kinds of excremeuti-
tious remedies.1
The Eeverend Maurice J. Bywater writes from Nassau, Bahamas,
that during the seven years he was on missionary duty in the island
of Borneo, he witnessed several very curious and remarkable instances
of the restorative and stimulating effects of human urine, as used by
the Chinese immigrants in cases of accident.
The Coreans use the same system of medicine as the Chinese. Both
employ plasters of human excrement for bites, erysipelas, inflamma-
tions, etc. They use the urine of a healthy boy as a tonic. — (Dr. H.
T. Allen, Secretary of Legation, Corean Embassy, Washington, D. C,
1888.) 2
Our knowledge of the Thibetans is still so limited that we must not
i "The urine of young children, mixed with lime and evaporated until a solid
is formed, cures general debility, and, made into a liquid, is most usefully applied
as a lotion for the eyes." (China.) — ("Evening Star," Washington, D. C,
Oct. 11, 1890.)
2 This is confirmed by Mr. Frank G. Carpenter, who has visited Corea.
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 341
attach too much importance to the little we have so far gained ; there
is still much to be learued concerning that singular, isolated race.
The strange veneration accorded the excrement of the Grand Lama
has been fully discussed, but their sacred books do not show that the
employment of stercoraceous medicaments is carried any farther.
According to the translation of the " Pratimoksha Sutra " made by
Mr. W. W. Rockhill, sick Buddhist monks were ordered to employ the
following remedies : " Le beurre foudu, Phuile, la melasse, le miel,
l'ecume de melasse." — ("Asiatic Society," Paris, 1885, p. 22.)
Dr. Francis Parkuian, in his "Jesuits in North America," Boston,
1867, introduction, p. xL, speaks of the "revolting remedies" em-
ployed by the Huron, Iroquois, and Algonquin tribes.
The following are among many of the curious recipes given in the
"Tragedy of the Gout," written by Blambeauseant, in 1600: —
" Ther 's the odorous sheep's dung, given always on the sly."
"A little blue ointment, mixed with man's ordure."
" Virgin's urine, as a cure for all the men in town."
(" Medicine in the Middle Ages," Minor, p. 88.)
Further references can be found in the following list, taken from
the "Bibliotheca Scatalogica," which likewise contains several of those
from which citations have already been made.
" Cet emploi des stercora, et en particulier, de ceux de l'homme,
pour les usages pharmaceutiques, est tres reel. On nommait medecins
stercoraires ceux qui les prescrivaient, et on dissimulait l'origine de la
substance sous diverses denominations bizarres ou ridicules (carbon
humanum, oletum, sulphur occideutale) . Suivant Paracelse, les ex-
crements humains pouvaient par une certaine preparation, acquerir
l'odeur du muse et de la civette ; de la le nom qu'on leur donnait de
civette ou muse occidental." — (" Bib. Scat.," p. 29.)
Ganin, De Simplic. Medicament, facultat. lib. x. fol. m. 75, $eq.
"An stercoris usus licitur? Conceditur." — (Xo. 200 of the "Bib.
Scat.," p. 77.)
"202. Gufer, Joh. Medicin. domest. tab. 3, p. 11, et Joh. phil.
Gieswein, De Mater. Medic, p. 292, imprimis laudant stercus hominis
qui lupinos comedit." — (Idem, p. 78.)
"203. Helvetius, Joh. Freder, Diribitor. med. p. 112, seq., recom-
mande le stercus humanum recens et adhuc calidum." — (Idem.)
Herodote, lib. ii. ; Hesoide, "Opera et Dies."
Sheep-dung, boiled in milk, recommended for the cure of the whoop-
342 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
ing cough by the Swedish physician Hjoort, as well as by the French
doctor Bauiner. — (" Bib. Scat." p. 78.)
Hoffmann, Fred, aunot. in Petr. poter, Pharmacap. Spagyric (lib. i.
p. 445), dit que excrernenta alvina magnara vim possident.
Homere, Odyssee, lib. vi. — (" Bib. Scat." p. 78.)
Kircher, Podronus /Egypticus, cap. ult.
Laerce (Diogene) in Pythagor.
Langius (Christ.), Oper. Medic, regarde les medicaments stercoraux
ut res indigna et execrabilis, cependant il en permet l'usage contra
desperatissimos morbos" (p. 79).
Lotichus, Johan. De casei nequitiae, Francof. 1640, " sordidi medi-
castri et o-KOTo^ayoi excrementis frui solent ; sed homo vero cordatus
et bouse mentis se abstinet " (p. 81).
" M. Gustave Brunet a insere dans sa traduction des propos de
table de Martin Luther" (Paris, 1844, p. 377), "quelques pensees du
celebre reformateur qui appartienuent a notre sujet. L'une roule sur
la transformation des excrements en nouveaux aliments ; l'autre sur
les proprietes de la fiente," etc. (p. 81).
Macrobii Saturnal. lib. iii. ; Martialis, Epigrammata, iv. 88; vii. 18;
xii. 40, 77, et ailleurs " (p. 81).
Mayern, Theodor. de Prax. Medic, syntagm. alter mele le stercus a
la poudre d'ceillets " (gilly-fiowers).
Menangiana. Paris, 1715, 4 vols, in 12. On trouve dans ce livre
divers passages relatifs a notre sujet. Voy. t. 1, pp. 9, 180, 222; t. 2,
p. 198; t. 3, p. 239.
Clemens d'Alexandrie, Recogn. lib. v. p. 71.
Denne, Ludovic. Pharmac. dissert. 1. p. m. 411, seg. "II blame
l'usage medical des excrements humains " (p. 73).
Diodore de Sicile, lib. i. cap. 8, p. 73.
Damian, P. Opuscula, c. 2, p. 73.
Praterius, Praxis, lib. iii. p. 330, recommande surtout l'huile et l'eau
extraite de stercore humano. Snivant Belleste, Chirurg. d'hopital, part
3, p. 248, chap. 4, le sel extrait des excrements du malade atteint de
dysentere le guerit."
Plutarque, Apoph. Laconic, p. 232. Petrus Pharmacop. Spagiric.
p. m. 445, regarde le stercus comme pouvant fournir rara et perfecta
remedia. Reference is had to the thirteenth chapter of Rabelais " sur
les anisterges." Rivinus (Augustus Quiriuus) Censur. Medicament,
officinal, cap. 2, p. 10, et seq. et 15 et seq., " strenne contra stercorum
usum pugnat." There are other old medical authorities cited, some
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 343
fully, others only partially iu favor of the medicinal use of the excreta ;
and one or two in antagonism thereto. — (" Bib. Scat." p. 38 et seq.).
" On a appelle album nigrum les crottes des souris et des rats, jadis
employes comme purgatif par les medecins stercoraires. Merde du
diable, stercus diaboli, c'est l'assafoetida, espece de gomme." ("Bib.
Scat." p. 128. See also Grose, Diet, of Buckish Slang, Lond. 1811,
Assafoet.) On the principle of "lucus a uon lucendo," the works of
Swieten, "Commentariorum," etc., Lyons, 177G, are worthy of special
mention ; careful examination fails to discover an}' allusion to the use
of excreta, human or animal, in pharmacy or therapeutics, and no
mention is made of witchcraft. Therefore the works of this author
mark a new stage in the development of scientific and religious
thought.
In Warner's "Topographical Remarks relating to the southwestern
parts of Hampshire," 1793 (vol. ii. p. 131), speaking of the old register
of Christ Church, that author tells us, " The same register affords,
also, several very curious receipts, or modes of cure iu some singular
cases of indisposition ; they are, apparently, of the beginning of the
seventeenth century, and couched in the uncouth phraseology of that
time." I forbear, however, to insert them, from motives of delicacy.
— (Brand, " Pop. Ant." vol. iii. p. 306, article " Physical Charms.")
" A new-born babe was not considered full}- prepared for life's jour-
ney until its stomach had been filled and emptied by a potation of
molasses diluted with the vesical secretions of the first youngster that,
could be secured for the purpose." — ("Professional Reminiscences,"
Benjamin Eddy Cutting, M. D., Curator of the Lowell Institute, Bos-
ton, Mass., 1888, p. 40.)
OTHER EXCREMENTITIOUS REMEDIES.
It was not enough that the urine and ordure of men and animals
should be employed in pharmacy ; everything that could be taken from
the bodies of men or animals, wild or domesticated, living or dead, was
enlisted to swell the dread list of filth remedies.
Etmuller supplies the following list of remedies; "sumuntur ex cor-
pore vivente : " Hair, nails, saliva, ear-wax, sweat, milk, menses, after-
birth, urine, ordure, semen, blood, calculi, worms, lice, caul (of infant),
. . . and these " ex partibus corporis demortui." . . . The whole
corpse, flesh, skin, fat, bones, skull, moss growing on a skull, brain,
gall, heart. Gall of animals has been used by the Indians of North
344 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
America as a stimulant. (See Etmuller, Michaelus, " Opera Omuia,"
vol. ii. p. 265, Schrod. " Dil. Zool.")
He also recites that the following parts of domestic kine were used
in medical practice : horns, bile, liver, spleen, blood, marrow, tallow,
fat, hoofs, urine, ordure, testicles, milk, butter, cheese, phallus, aud
bones. — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 2-18 et seq.)
HAIR.
" The first hair cut from an infant's head will modify the attacks of
gout. . . . The hair of a man torn down from the cross is good for
quartan fevers." — (Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 7.)
" The smell of a woman's hair, burnt, will drive away serpents, and
hysterical suffocations, it is said, may be dispelled thereby. The ashes
of a woman's hair, burnt in an earthen vessel, will cure eruptions and
porrigo of the eyes . . . warts and ulcers upon infants . . . wounds
upon the head . . . corrosive ulcers . . . inflammatory turuors and
gout . . . erysipelas and hemorrhages, and itching pimples." — (Pliny,
lib. xxviii. c. 20.)
Schurig commends the use of human hair in cases of balduess, ap-
plied externally in salve, chopped fine or in ashes ; for the cure of
yellow jaundice, it was powdered and drunk iu some suitable men-
struum ; it was employed iu luxation of the joints, for hemorrhage from
wounds : " Ad canis morsuum, iufantis capilli cum aceto impositu
morsum sine tumore sanant et capitis ulcera emendant." — (Sextus
Placitus, art. " De Puello et Puella Virgine.")
Flemming advised that it be powdered aud drunk in wine as a cure
for yellow jaundice ; woman's hair, powdered and made into a salve,
■with lard, was of general efficacy ; men's hair was burned under the
nostrils of those suffering from lethargy ; and was drunk for " suffoca-
tion of the womb." — ("De Remediis," etc. p. 8.)
A medicinal oil was distilled from the hair of a full beard, and an
ointment made from the same. Powdered human hair was drunk as a
potion in a cure for yellow jaundice ; the ashes of burnt hair were made
into an unguent with mutton tallow, and applied to the nostrils of peo-
ple iu a state of lethargy ; in " suffocation of the uterus," this oint-
ment was applied to the pudenda. The hair of a patient was frequently
used in affecting " sympathetic cures," or in what were called " Cures
by Transplantation," but the names of the diseases are not given by
Flemming (p. 21). (But see under "Cures by Transplantation" in
this volume.)
ORDUKE AXD URIXE IX MEDICINE. 345
In China, the shavings of the hair, which must amount to a consid-
erable quantity, since hundreds of millions of people shave the head
close daily, are preserved for manuring the laud. — (See "Bingham's
Exped. to China," Loudon, 1842, vol. ii. p. 7.)
In China, everything connected with the tilling of the fields is still
a religious rite. Probably no country in the world of equal advancement
has adhered with more tenacity to old usages in all that pertains to the
turning-up of the soil-, there are ceremonies in which the Emperor
himself must lead with a plough. How much all this may have to do
with the utilization of a refuse which has been so generally regarded as
possessed of " magical " or " medicinal " properties, is, in all likelihood,
never to be ascertained ; but attention should be attracted to the fact,
in the same manner that it was found worth while to make an exami-
nation iuto the history of latrines.
" Among ourselves, it is a Devonshire belief that you can give a
neighbor ague by burying a dead man's hair under his threshold." —
("Folk-Medicine," Black, p. 27.)
" In Devonshire and in Scotland alike, when a child has whooping-
cough, a hair is taken from its head, put between slices of bread and
butter, and given to a dog, aud if in eating it the dog cough, as natural-
ly he will, the whooping-cough will be transferred to the animal, and
the child will go free." The same method of cure is practised in Ireland,
but the animal selected is an ass. — (Idem, p. 35.)
"Certain oak-trees at Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire, were long
famous for the cure of ague. The transference was simple, but pain-
ful. A lock of hair was pegged into an oak, and then, by a sudden
wrench, transferred from the head of the patient to the tree." — (Idem,
p. 39.)
Clippings of hair and rags are offered to holy wells in Ireland, Bor-
neo, Malabar, etc., not merely as offerings to deities, but in order to
effect a " transference " of diseases to the people who may take hold
of them. — (Idem, pp. 39, 40 ; quoting from Tylor, " Primitive Culture,"
vol. ii., and others.)
" In New England, to cure a child of the rickets, a lock of its hair
is buried at cross-roads, and if at full moon, so much the better." —
(Idem, p. 56 )
It is believed in parts of England that the hairs from a donkey's back,
wrapped up in bread, and given to a sick child, will cure the whooping-
cough ; another remedy of the same kind is to take clippings from the
child's own head, mix them in butter, aud give to a dog, which will
346 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
take the disease from the child ; still another was to mount the suffer-
er upon the back of an ass, and lead him nine times round an oak-
tree. — (See Brand, "Pop. Ant," vol. iii. p. 288, art. "Physical
Charms.")
The Romans attached certain omens to the manner, time, and place
of cutting the nails and hair. — (See Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 5.)
The ancients believed that " no person in a ship must pare his nails,
or cut his hair except in a storm." — (Brand, " Pop. Ant.," vol. iii. p.239,
art. " Omens Among Sailors," quoting Petronius Arbiter.)
" When a man has his hair cut, he is careful to burn it, or bury it
secretly, lest falling into the hands of some one who has an evil eye,
or is a witch, it should be used as a charm to afflict him with a head-
ache."— (Livingston, "Zambesi," London, 1865, p. 47.)
Etmuller relates that in his time women suffering from retention of
the menses were in the habit of plucking the hair growing on the pubis,
which would promptly cause their reappearance, but whether by the
irritation or by taking the hair internally, is not clear . — " Mulieres
suffocate ex utero soleant vellicare in pilis pubis, ut citius et felicius
ad se redeant." Finger-nail clippings were drunk as an emetic, es-
pecially by soldiers while on campaign : — " Ungues infusi in vinum
vel potum cum vehementia cient vomitum et purgant per fecessum
. . . propinavit pro vomitorio et purgante militibus ungues proprios
infusos per nocteni in vinum calidum " — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 269).
"The hair and nails are cut at the full moon." — (Grimm, "Teu-
tonic Mythology," Stallybrass, London, 1882, vol. ii, p. 712 et seq.)
The Patagonians "all believe that the witches and wizards cau injure
whom they choose, even to deprivation of life, if they can possess them-
selves of some part of their intended victim's bod}7, or that which has
proceeded thence, such as hair, pieces of nails, etc. . . . And this
superstition is the more curious from its exact accordance with that
so prevalent in Polynesia." — ("Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle,"
London, 1839, vol. ii. p. 163, quoting the Jesuit Faulkner.)
" Which is the most deadly deed whereby a man increases most
the baleful strength of the Dsevas, as he would by offering them a
sacrifice 1 "
" Ahura Mazda answered : — 'It is when a man here below combing
his hair or shaving it off, or paring off his nails, drops them in a hole
or in a crack.' " — (Fargard XVII. Avendidad, Zendavesta, Oxford,
1880, p. 186.)
Beckherius states that the clippings of the finger-nails made an ex-
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 347
cellent emetic. " Vomitorium non inelegans ex iis paratur." — ("Med.
Mic")
Flemming goes more into detail ; he says that the finely ground
clippings of the hoof of the elk, stag, goat, hull, etc., were employed
as a vomitory, hut m their absence, human finger-nails were substituted;
" istam ungulorum speciem qua? ab homine desumitur, substitui." Hu-
man finger-nail clippings were also recommended in " sympathetic "
cures. — (Flemming, " De Remediis," p. 21.)
"He who trims his nails and buries the parings is a pious man ; he
who burns them is a righteous man ; but he who throws them away
is a wicked man, for mischance might follow should a female step over
them." — (Paul Isaac Hershon, " Talmudic Miscellany," Boston, 1880,
p. 49 ; footnote to above, " The orthodox Jews in Poland are to this day
careful to bury away or burn their nail-parings.")
On a fragment of a Chaldean tablet occurs this curious passage : —
" A son to his mother,
(if) he has said to her, Thou art not my mother
His hair and nails shall be cut oil,
In the town he shall be banished from land and water."
("Chaldean Magic," Francois Lenormant, London, 1873, p. 382.)
In the province of Moray, Scotland, " In hectic fevers and consump-
tive diseases they pare the nails of the fingers and toes of the patient,
put these in a bag made of a rag from his clothes, . . . then wave
their hand with the rag thrice round his head, crying ' Deas Soil,' after
which they bury the rag in some unknown place." Pliny, in his
Natural History, mentions it as practised by the magiciaus or Druids
of his time. — (Brand, "Pop. Ant.," vol. iii. p. 286, art. "Physical
Charms.")
SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE HUMAN SALIVA.
The most recent work on this subject is the extended monograph of
Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now in press,
and to the pages of which the author of this volume has contributed
his own collection of data.
Reference may also be had, with advantage, to Brand's Popular
Antiquities, Reginald Scot's " Discoverie of Witchcraft," Black's " Folk-
Medicine," Samuel Augustus Flemming's " De Remediis ex Corpore
Humano desumtis," Lenormant's " Le Magie chez les Chaldiens," and
to the works of Pliny, Galen, " Saxon Leechdoms," Levinus Lemnius,
Beckherius, Etmuller, and many others.
G48 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
John Graham Dalyell, " Superstitions of Scotland," Edinburgh, 1834,
has a chapter on the occult influences attributed to human saliva.
When the Khonds of Orissa were about to sacrifice a human victim,
they were wont to solicit the favor of having him spit in their faces ;
" sollicitent un crachat qu'ils s'etendront soigneusement." — ("Les
Primitifs," Reclus, p. 3G8.)
In the ritual of the Hill Tribes of the Nilgherris, it is related : —
" Mada a crache Jans les fontaines."
(Quoted in "Les Primitifs," p. 244.)
Frommaun, in his "Tractatus de Fascinatione," Nuremburg, 1675,
speaks of the anointing of eyes with saliva, to cure blindness ; this he
compares to the use made by our Saviour of the same (p. 196).
" The Kirghis tribes apply to their sorcerers, or Baksy, to chase
away demons, and thus to cure the diseases they are supposed to pro-
duce. To this end they whip the invalid until the blood comes, and
then spit in his face." — ("Chaldean Magic," Francois Leuormant,
London, 1873, p. 212.)
Many interesting practices connected with the human saliva, are
given in Lady Wilde's " Ancient Legends and Superstitions of Ireland,"
Boston, 1888. See also "The Golden Bough," James G. Frazer, M.A.,
London, 1890, vol. i. pp. 385, 386.
CERUMEN OR EAR-WAX.
Pliny speaks of its use in medicine (lib. xxviii. cap. 7) ; Galen does
also. Flemming recommended its internal use in colic aud cramps ;
and externally as an application to wounds. — ("De Remediis," etc.,
p. 22.)
Paullini was of the opinion that a good salve for sore eyes could be
prepared from cerumen (pp. 42, 43).
" The excrement of the ears, like unto a yellow oyntment, is a great
comfort in the pricking of the sinews." — (Von Helmont, "Oritrika,"
English translation, London, 1662, p. 247.)
Galen thought that ear-wax was efficacious in the cure of whit-nails ;
the other " sordes" were also employed, but he would not write about
them, on account of the difficulty of obtaining them, — such as the
perspiration flowing in the bath, or scraped from the body after severe
exercise; and, finally, the fatty matter of wool was of medicinal value,
and seemed to have the same properties as butter. — (Galen, " Opera
Omnia," lib. xii. p. 309, Kuhn's edition, Leipzig, 1829.)
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 349
■woman's milk.
Woman's milk mitigated redness of eyes and inflammation of the
lachrymal glands; it should be used with vitriol. For "gutta serena"
it was applied as an ointment ; in cases of atrophy it was regarded by
many as of commendable utility, especially if drawn from the woman's
breast ; the same treatment was a specific in obstinate hiccough.
A butter prepared from woman's milk was used in diseases of chil-
dren, especially colic, and in ocular affections. (See Flemming, " De
Remediis," etc., p. 18.) Its remedial efficacy forms the basis of Pliny's
c. 21, lib. xxviii. ; if possible, it should be that of a woman who had just
borne male twins. "If a person is rubbed at the same time with the
milk of both mother and daughter, he will be proof for all the rest of
his life against all affections of the eyes. . . . Mixed with the urine of
a youth who has not yet arrived at puberty, it removes ringing in the
ears." — (Idem.)
" Matricis vulneribus confert. . . . lac mulieris." — (Avicenna, vol. i.
p. 337, a 36.)
The Empress of China took the milk of sixty wet nurses to keep
herself alive, according to Mr. Frank G. Carpenter.
Woman's milk is still used in the rude trephining of the African
Kabyles as a dressing. — (See " Prehistoric Trephining," by Dr. Robert
Fletcher, in vol. v. " Contributions to North American Ethnology,"
Washington, D. C, 1882.)
HUMAN SWEAT.
Human perspiration was believed to be valuable not only as a means
of prognosis in some diseases, but its appearance was dreaded in others.
If the perspiration of a fever-stricken patient was mixed with dough,
baked into bread, and given to a dog, the dog would catch the fever,
and the man recover. It was efficacious in driving away scrofulous
wens, and in rendering philters abortive. It was narrated that if a man,
who under the influence of a philter, was forced to love a girl against
his will, would put on a pair of new shoes, and wear them out by walk-
ing in them, and then drink wine out of the right shoe, where it could
mingle with the perspiration already there, he would promptly be cured
of his love, and hate take its place.
This corresponds closely to the urine case already noted ; and it is
proper to repeat Flemming's own words on the matter : " Narrant
quod, si quis philtro fascinatus era fuerit, ad amandam prseter volun-
350 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
tatem virginem, ut is noves induat calces, miliareque unum obambu-
lando conficiat, quo sudor animadvertatur postque vinum e calceodextri
pedis sudore ruadido, hauriat, sic ab illicito amore liberari amoremque
in odium converti dicunt." — (" De Remediis," p. 19.)
See Etmuller, who used it in scrofula, lib. ii. p. 2C5 ; Pliny, lib. 28 •
Galen and Avicenna (sweat of gladiators), vol. i. p. 398, a 17, and
elsewhere.
SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE CATAMENIAL FLUID.
For the opinions entertained by the ancients regarding its occult
powers, read Pliny (Bonn's edition), lib. xxviii. cap. 23, and again lib.
viii. cap. 13. "On the approach of a woman in this state, must will
become sour, seeds which are touched by her become sterile, grafts
wither away, garden-plants are parched up, and the fruit will fall from
the tree beneath which she sits ; . . . a swarm of bees if looked upon
by her will die immediately, brass and iron will immediately become
rusty. . . . Dogs tasting the catamenial fluid will go mad. ... In ad-
dition to this, the bitumen which is found at certain periods of the year
floating on the Lake of Judea, known as Asphaltites, — a substance which
is peculiarly tenacious, and adheres to everything it touches, — can only
be divided into separate pieces by a thread which has been dipped into
this virulent matter." (Lib. vii. cap. 13, and again lib. xxviii. cap. 23.)
In a footnote it is stated that both Josephus (" Bell. Jud.," lib. iv. cap. 9)
and Tacitus (lib. v. cap. 6) give an account of this supposed action of this
fluid on the bitumen of Lake Asphaltites. " Hail-storms, they say, whirl-
winds, and lightning even, will be scared away by a woman uncovering
her body merely, even though menstruating at the time." (Lib. xxviii.
cap. 23.) Menstruating women, in Cappadocia, perambulated the fields
of grain to preserve them from worms and caterpillai-s. (Idem.)
" Youug vines, too, it is said, are injured irremediably by the touch of
a woman in this state ; and both rue and ivy plants, possessed of highly
medicinal virtues, will die instantly upon being touched by her. . . .
The edge of a razor will become blunted on coming in contact with
her." — (Idem.)
" All plants will turn pale upon the approach of a woman who has
the menstrual discharge upon her." (Pliny, lib. xix. cap 57.) The same
opinion prevailed in France down to our own times. (Idem, footnote.)
" Expiations were made with the menstrual discharge, . . . not only
by midwives, but even by harlots as well" (lib. xxviii. cap. 20).
Frommann cites Aristotle and Pliny in reference to the maleficent
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 351
effects of the menses and of the uncanniness of a menstruating woman.
Aristotle said her glance took the polish out of a mirror, and the next
person looking into it would be bewitched. Frommaun quotes a man
who said he saw a tree in Goa which had withered because a cata-
menial napkin had been hung in it. — (" Tractatus de Fascinatione,"
Nuremburg, 1675, pp. 17, 18.)
" Stains upon a garment made with the catamenial fluid can only be
removed by the agency of the urine of the same female." — (Pliny,
lib. xxviii. cap. 24.)
" An Australian black fellow who discovered that his wife had lain
on his blanket at her menstrual period, killed her, and died of terror
himself within a fortnight. Hence Australian women at these times
are forbidden under pain of death to touch anything that men use.''
("The Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 170. He supplies other ex-
amples from the Eskimo and the Indians of North America. " Tinneh,"
etc., p. 170). In the following example we are not certain that the
young women selected were undergoing purgation, but there is some
reason for believing that such was the case, especially in view of the
general dissemination of the ideas connected with the catamenia.
" In a district of Transylvania, when the ground is parched with
drought, some girls strip themselves naked, and, led by an older
woman, who is also naked, they steal a harrow and cany it across the
field to a brook, where they set it afloat. Next they sit on the har-
row, and keep a tiny flame burning on each corner of it for an hour ;
then they leave the harrow and go home. A similar rain-charm is
resorted to in India; naked women drag a plough across the field by
night." — ("The Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 17.)
For all bites of centipedes the people of Angola, Portuguese and
negroes, apply the catamenial fluid. This remedy is implicitly believed
in by all concerned. — (Rev. Mr. Chatelain, missionary to Angola,
Africa.)
For the Inuit, see " Les Primitifs," Reclus, Paris, 1885.
The dread felt by the American Indians on this subject is too well
known to need much attention in these pages ; it corresponds in every
respect to the particulars recited by Pliny. Squaws, at the time of
menstrual purgation, are obliged to seclude themselves ; in most tribes
they are compelled to occupy isolated lodges ; and in all are forbidden
to prepare food for any one but themselves.
It is believed that were a menstruating woman to step astride of a
rifle or a bow or a lance, the weapon would have no further utility.
352 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Medicine-men are in the habit of making a saving clause, whenever they
proceed to make "medicine;" this is to the effect that the "medi-
cine " will be all right provided no woman in this peculiar condition
be allowed to approach the tent or lodge of the officiating charlatan.
Among the Navajoea of Arizona it is customary for the women to
wear a strip of sheep-skin, called a " chogau ; " when the necessity for
its use has disappeared, the woman goes outside of the village and con-
ceals it in the forks of one of the cedar or juniper trees so numerous in
the mountains. The author once found one of these ; but the people
with him were impressed with the idea that no good would come from
being near it. At another time he knew of a young boy who had been
hit by a " chogan " which had been dislodged by a wind-storm. He
was almost frantic with terror, and devoted three or four days to sing-
ing and to washiug in a " sweat-bath."
The Ostiaks of Siberia would seem to have the same ideas on this
subject as the Apaches and Navajoes have. — (See Talks, "Voyages,"
vol. iv. p. 95.)
Danielus Beckherius informs his readers that menstrual blood was
used in medicine (pp. 23 et seq.) ; philters were prepared from it (idem,
p. 341). "Zenith juvencarum sc. sanguines menstruum" were
given for epilepsy, — that is, the first menses of a girl (idem, p. 42).
The lint of the napkin itself was thus given also (idem), — • " litura
pannorum menstruorum datur patienti sanari morbum comitialium."
The first napkin used by a healthy virgin was preserved for use in
cases of plague, malignant carbuncles, etc., dampened with water and
laid on the part affected ; also used in erysipelas (idem, p. 43, " Med.
Microcosmus "). Dried catamenia were given internally for calculi,
epilepsy, etc., and externally for podagra ; they were also used in treat-
ment of the plague, for carbuncles, aposthumes, being placed thereon
with a rag wet with rosewater or oil, into which menstrual fluid had
been poured ; it was good as a cosmetic to drive away pimples (p. 205).
To restrain an immoderate flow of the menses a napkin was saturated
with menstrual blood, and then kept for a certain time in an aperture
made in the bark of a cherry-tree. " Ad immodicum menstruorum
fiuxum cohibendum sunt qui pannum menstruumo sanguine imbutum
certo tempore cerasi radice in cortice aperta? iudunt, incisuramque
iterum operiunt." — (Etmuller, "Op. Omnia;" Schrod. "Dil. Zool.,"
vol. ii. p. 265.)
Paullini prescribes the " dried catamenia of women " for the cure of
kidney diseases (pp. 142, 1 43), also for ring-worm, felons, menstrual
ORDURE AND CRINE IN MEDICINE. 353
troubles. Frommann gives the same cure for immoderate menses, by
placing the napkin in a cherry-tree. — (See " Tract, de Fascinatioue,"
p. 1006.)
"Excoriationi conferunt. . . . sanguis menstruus." — (Avicenna,
vol. i. p. 388.)
According to Fleuiming, menstrual blood was believed to be so
powerful that the mere touch of a menstruating women would render
vines and all kinds of fruit-trees sterile (herein he seems to be follow-
ing Pliny). It was believed to be valuable medicinally in relieving
obstructions to the menstrual flow of other women ; even the soiled
smock of a woman who had menstruated happily was efficacious in
assisting another woman whose menses for any cause were retarded.
A small portion of the menses, dried and taken internally, mitigated
the ailment known as dysmenorhcea. Flemming states that, while in
his time this remedy had been gradually superseded, its use was still
kept up among the poor and ignorant, in erysipelas, face-blotches, and
as an ingredient in an ointment for podagra or gout. • — ("DeRerne-
diis," pp. 16, 17.)
The Laplanders " say that they can stop a vessel in the middle of its
course, and that the only remedy against the power of this charm is
the sprinkling of female purgations, the odor of which is insupportable
to evil spirits." — ("Eegnard's Journey to Lapland," in Pinkerton,
vol. i. p. 180).
"To cure a young woman of consumption she was given monthlv
discharges to drink." — (" Dutchess County, New York," 1832, Mr.
Joseph Y. Bergen, Jr., Cambridge. Mass.)
" Isaiah compareth our justice " pauuo menstruatae." — (Harington,
" Ajax," p. 24.)
" Crines fceminae menstruosse, the haires of a menstruous woman
are turned into serpents within short space." — (Scot, " Discoverie,"
p. 221.)
" Men have a special objection to see the blood of women at certain
times ; they say that if they were to see it they would not be able to
fight against their enemies and would be killed." (Mrs. James Smith,
" The Roandik Tribes," p. 5.) Hence, although bleeding is a common
Australian cure among men, women are not allowed to be bled.
(Angas, vol. i. p. 3.) This aversion is perhaps the explanation of that
seclusion of women at puberty, childbirth, etc., which has assumed
different forms in many parts of the world." — (" Totemism," Frazer,
p. 54, footnote.)
23
354 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Old women were suspected of using the first menstrual flow of a
young girl in love-philters. — (Samuel Augustus Flemming, " De
Remediis.")
" For colic take the scrapings of the nails of a catemenial virgin,
mix with water, and take." — (Sagen-Miirchen, Yolksaberglauben aus
Srhwaben, Freiburg, 1861, p. 487.)
There were many curious ideas prevalent in olden times as to the
manner in which the basilisk or cockatrice could be engendered. " Si
l'on place dans une gourde de verre du sang menstruel, et si Ton fait
putrifier celui-ci dans le ventre d'uu cheval, il en nait un basilic." —
(" Melusine," Paris, January-February, 1890, p. 19.)
Although the Israelites had many notions in common with the
American Indians on the subject of the catamenial fluid, and the
seclusion of women undergoing purgation, there does not seem to have
been any effort made to preserve or to hide the cloths used on such
occasions. Thus the Prophet Isaiah (lxiv. 0) says of the idols of the
Gentiles that they must be cast aside as the napkins soiled with the
menses. " Hoc est disperges ea (de idolis loquitur) sicut immundi-
tionem menstruate." — (Contributed by Doctor Robert Fletcher.)
References to use of the catamenial fluid in witchcraft will be found
in Beckherius, quoting Josephus
"Hiawatha, wise and thoughtful,
You shall Mess to-night the corn-fields,
Draw a magic circle round them,
To protect them from destruction.
*' Eise up from your bed in silence,
Lay aside your garments wholly,
Walk around the fields you planted,
" Covered with your tresses only,
Robed with darkness as a garment.'
("Hiawatha," Longfellow, canto xiii., "Blessing the Corn-Fields.")
Menstruating women were excluded from the Jewish synagogues and
from the communion table of the early Christian Church : " Menstru-
atse mulieres superstitiose exclusre ab ecclesia." — (Baronius, "An-
nates," Lucca, 1758, tome 3, 266, xi.)
AFTER-BIRTH AND LOCHIA.
Both of these were used medicinally ; the lochise were useful in re-
straining uterine hemorrhages; after-birth, dried and powdered, de-
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. iioO
prived love-philters of their power ; it was used as an anti-epileptic,
to relieve retention of the menses, etc. (See Flemming, " De Remediis,"
p. 17.) Secundines were used in the treatment of epilepsy. — (See
Etmuller, vol ii. p. 2G5).
HUMAN SEMEN.
Etmuller knew nothing of the remedial value of human semen be-
yond the fact that Paracelsus had recommended its use in some cases
(vol. ii. p. 272).
Pliny mentions the use of human semen as a medicine (lib. xxviii. c.
10).
The savage Australians have " a last and most .disgusting remedy
. . . deemed infallible in the most extreme cases." . . "Mulierem ob
juventutem firmitatemque corporis lectam sex vel plures viri in locum
haud procul a castris remotum deducant. Ibique omnes deinceps in
ilia libidinem explent. Turn mulier ad pedes surgere jubetur quo
facilius id quod maribus excepit effluere possit. Quod in vase collectum
Kgrotanti ebibendum pnebent." The aborigines have unbounded
faith in this truly horrible dose, and enumerate many, many instances
where it has effected marvellous cures. We, however, have known of
its having been administered in several cases without the remotest
revivifying result. It may be that this fluid is — in fact some savants
positively assert that it is so — the very essence of life, as well as con-
taining the germs thereof, and that administering a draught thereof to
a patient slowly but surely dying from exhaustion, consequent upon a
long fit of illness (the illness itself having died out or been cured)
might have the wonderful effect detailed so positively by the natives ;
but this is a question for physicians to decide." — (" The Abor. of
Victoria and Riverina," Melbourne, 1889, p. 55, P. Beveridge, received
through the kindness of the Royal Soc, Sydney, N. S. Wales, F. B.
Kyngdon, Secretary.)
"Impetigine conferunt . . . sperma." — (Avicenna, vol. i. p. 330,
a 10.)
For gout Avicenna prescribed " Sanguis menstruus," " Sperma
hominis" (vol. i. p. 330, a 12; idem, a 13); "Sanguis menstruus
calidus" (vol. i. p. 388, b9); also " Stercus caprarum " (vol. i. p. 390,
a 13). Consult also what has been said of this secretion under "Love-
philters."
■356 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
HUMAN BLOOD.
The medicinal employment of human hlood is described by Pliny
(lib. xxviii. cap. 105).
Beckherius says that human blood was employed in the treatment
of epilepsy. Faustina, the wife of the philosophical emperor, Marcus
Antoninus, anxious to have a child, drank the warm blood of a dying
gladiator, and then shared her husband's bed, and at once became preg-
nant, and brought forth the cruel Commodus. Human hlood was also
used in effecting "sympathetic cures." — (" Medic. Microcos." pp. 122,
128.)
But it was essential that the human blood so employed should be
pure and undefiled ; lovers who wished to increase the affection of
their mistresses, were recommended to try an infusion of their own
blood into the loved one's veins. The blood of man and also that of
some animals, notably the dog, sheep, etc., were employed in mania,
delirium, cancer, etc. The method of transfusion was preferred.
Epileptics would sometimes drink a draught of the warm blood caught
gushing from the neck of a decapitated criminal ; the blood of a man,
just decapitated, drunk warm, cured epilepsy and restrained uterine
hemorrhage. — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 272.)
Grimm alludes to the fact that the blood of innocent maids and boys
was used as a remedy for leprosy ; that of malefactors, in epilepsy.
— ("Teut. Mythol." vol. iii. p. 1173.)
See the discussion of this matter under the caption of " Human
Skulls." Consult the work "Blood-Covenant," by Dr. H. C. Trum-
bull.
In regard to the conduct of the empress Faustina, see " History of
the Inquisition," Henry C. Lea, N. Y. 1889, vol. iii. p. 391.
HUMAN SKIN, FLESH, AND TALLOW.
Girdles of human skin were regarded as efficacious in helping women
in labor; Etmuller, in his "Comment. Ludovic." disapproves of their
use, but, in another part of his works, describes how and for what pur-
poses they were to be employed.
"Corium humanum et ex inde paratum cingulum magni est usu in
suffocatione uterina arcenda, uti etiam in pellendo fieto mortuo, item
in partu difficile" (vol. ii. p. 272).
References to such girdles or belts, called "cingulae" or "chiro-
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 357
thecse " are to be found in the writings of Samuel Augustus Flemming
and others.
Human flesh, of corpses, was administered under the name of
" Mummy." (See Beckherius, " Med. Microcos." p. 263 et seq.) He
enumerates no less than fifty prescriptions for all sorts of ailments.
The " mummy " should be from a malefactor, hanged on a gibbet,
never buried, and the age should have been between 25 and 40, of
good constitution, without organic or other diseases, and gathered in
clear weather.
Human flesh occurs in recipes in " The Chyrurgeon's Closet," Lon-
don, 1632, pp. 6, 53.
Andrew Lang refers to the use of " mummy powder " by the physi-
cians of the Court of Charles II. — (" Myth," etc. vol. i. p. 96.)
Human tallow was employed in medicine, rendered from the skin
and other parts. It was regarded as efficacious in eradicating small-
pox pustules, while an " oleum Philosophorum " was distilled from it
and held in high repute for tumors, catarrhal troubles, affections of the
ear, etc. — (Flemming, " De Remediis," p. 9.)
Human flesh ' mumia," was recommended in the preparation of the
best " Paracelsus salve. . . . Recommended for cure of bruises and
against congealed blood. . . . Most excellent and most approved
medicines."
HUMAN SKULL. — BRAIN. MOSS GROWING ON HUMAN SKULL. MOSS
GROWING ON STATUE. LICE.
Democritus thought, in his Memoirs, quoted by Pliny, that "the
skull of a malefactor is most efficacious. . . . While, for the treatment
of others, that of one who has been a friend or guest is required."
(Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 2.) . . . Skull of a man who has been slain,"
and " whose body remains unburnt. . . . Skull of a man who has been
hanged." — (Idem.)
" Xenocrates, who, says Galen, flourished two generations or sixty
years before him, writes with an air of confidence on the good effects
to be obtained by eating of the human brain, flesh, or liver; by swal-
lowing in drink the burnt or unburnt bones of the head, shin, or fingers
of a man, or the blood." — ("Saxon Leechdoms," lib. i. p. 18.)
" Against a boring worm . . . burn to ashes a man's head-bone or
skull; put it on with a pipe." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 127, article "Leech
Book.")
Paracelsus gives the recipe for distilling " The Oyle of the Skull of a
3o8 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIOXS.
Man. . . . Take the skull of a man that was never buried, and beate it
into powder. ("The Secrets of Physieke," Theopbrastus Paracelsus,
Eug. transl. London, 1633, p. 97.) "The dose is three grains against
the falling sickness." — (Idem.)
Schurig notes that the human skull is a remedy for the falling sick-
ness. — (See " Chylologia.")
The skull of a man was used for diseases of men ; that of a woman,
for diseases of women. — (See "Rare Secrets in Physieke," collected
by the Comtesse of Kent, Loudon, 1 65-1, p. 3.)
Beckherius prescribed it in cephalic affections, epilepsy, paralysis,
apoplexy, vertigo, etc., taken in powder, or raw, simply or in combina-
tion.— ("Medicus Microcosrnus," p. 199 et seq.)
But the skull was, preferentially, " Cranii faumani nunquam
sepulti" (p. 217); or, "Cranii, humani violenter mortui " (p. 26C).
Moss from such a skull was also used medicinally (idem, p. 237). If
possible, it should be that of a man who had been executed on a
scaffold, "patibula."
" Powder of a man's bones, burnt, chiefly of the skull that is found
in the earth, given, cureth the epilepsy. The bones of a man cureth a
man, the bones of a woman, cureth a woman." But the patient had
to abstain from wine for nine days. — ("The Poor Man's Physician,"
John Moncrief, Edin. 1716, p. 70.)
" Os hominis adustum," a cure for epilepsy (Avicenua, vol. i. p. 330
a 18); "Mumia" (idem, vol. i. p. 357, a 55); " Ossa hominis in potu
data" (idem, vol. i. p. 371, a 6).
Epilepsie. "Take pilles made of the skull of one that is hanged."
— (Reg. Scot. "Discorerie," p. 175.)
The skulls of ancestors were used as drinking cups by the Tibetans,
according to Rubruquis, in Purchas (vol. i. p. 23).
" Among primitive people the head is peculiarly sacred." — (" The
Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 187.)
Dr. Bernard Schaff gives the following formula for the cure of
fevers : " Take a human skull from among those not enclosed in tombs,
and calcine it in a crucible or in the open fire ; administer in doses of
from one scruple to half a dram an hour or two before the paroxysm
of the fever." He adds that among the common people the belief
prevailed that the skull should be obtained at the early dawn of day,
about the time of the winter solstice, and with the ceremonies (sacris)
peculiar to that season, that it should be picked up in silence ; but for
his part he does not believe in such things.
OKDUEE AND UBINE IX MEDICINE. 359
" Recipitur cranium humanum ex ipsis quoque sepulchrorum clau-
stris deproniptum (vulgus addit tempore matutino ante Solis ortum
sub sacris angeronre, hoc est, ore tacito, aufferatur, quod tameu, cum
uliquani sapere videatur superstitionem, imitari nolui) et vel igue
aperto, vel in crucibulo, calciuatur, usquedem colorem acquirat ciueri-
tium pulverisatum hocce cranium adhibetur a 9 i. ad 5 ; i. vel ii. horas
ante paroxysuii principio." — (" Ephem. Phys. Medic," Leipzig, 1G94,
vol. ii. p. 93.)
The skull of a malefactor who had died on the scaffold or wheel,
and which had been exposed in the open air long enough to make it
perfectly dry and white, was considered a specific in epilepsy, being much
superior for that purpose to the skulls obtained from graveyards.
Soldiers thought that if they drank from a human skull before going
into battle they would secure immunity from the weapons of the enemy.
This belief undoubtedly came into Europe with the Scythians.
" Milites putant, si quis ex' cranio humauo hauriat potum fore ut sit
immuuis ab iusultis armorum." — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 2G8, 2C9.)
Etmuller also shows that these skulls were ground up and adminis-
tered to epileptic patients, many modes of preparation and administra-
tion being given.
Flemming wrote that human skull was considered a poteut remedy
in all ailments for which practitioners would administer human brain,
— that is, in nerve troubles and in epilepsy. Preferably, the skull
should be taken from a corpse which bad died a violent death, —
" Qua; e cadavere violenta morte extincto est desumta." It was an
ingredient in many preparations bearing the high-sounding titles
of "majesterium epilepticum," "specificum cephalicum," etc. As a
powder, ground raw or calcined, it was sometimes administered as a
febrifuge aud in paralysis. — (" De Remediis," p. 10.)
Mr. W. W. Rockhill states that the Lamas of Thibet use skulls in
their religious ceremonies, but reject those which smell like human
urine. " Blood of a dead man's skull " used to check hemorrhage.
— (Pettigrew, " Med. Superst.," p. 113.)
" There is a divination-bowl, — an uncanny object, made of the in-
verted cranium of a Buddhist priest." — (" Tidbits from Tibet," in the
"Eveuiug Star," Washington, D. C, Nov. 3, 1888, describing the
W. W. Rockhill collection in the National Museum.)
Before the coming of the whites the savages of Australia employed
human skulls as drinking-vsssels, — "human skulls with the sutures
stopped up with a resinous gum." — (" Native Tribes of S. Australia,"
360 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Adelaide, 1879, received through the kindness of the Royal Society,
Sydney, New South "Wales, F. B. Kyngdou, Secretary.)
"The powder of a man's bones, and particularly that made from a
skull found in the earth, was esteemed in Scotland as a cure for epi-
lepsy. As usual, the form runs that the bones of a man will cure a
man, and the bones of a woman will cure a woman. Grose notes the
merits of the moss found growing upon a human skull, if dried and
powdered and taken as suuff, in cases of headache." (Black, " Folk-
Medicine," p. 96.) He also informs us that the same beliefs and the
same remedy obtained in England and Ireland.
" Among the articles which may be regarded more as household
furniture . . . are the dried human skulls, which are found wrapped
in banana-leaves in the habitation of nearly every well-regulated Dyak
family. They are hung up on the wall, or depend from the roof. The
lower jaw is always wanting, as the Dyak finds it more convenient to
decapitate his victim below the occiput, leaving the lower jaw attached
to his body." — (" Head-Hunters of Borneo," Carl Bock, London, 1881,
p. 199.)
The careful manner in which the Mandaus preserved the skulls of
their dead, as narrated by Catlin, is recalled to mind.
MOSS GROWING ON HUMAN SKULLS.
The medicinal use of the moss growing on the skulls of those who
had died violent deaths is mentioned by Von Helmont. — (" Oritrika,"
p. 768.)
Etmuller speaks of the usnea, or moss, growing on the skull of a
malefactor, which was given in cases of epilepsy (vol. ii. p. 273).
Flemming regarded such moss, if taken from the skull of a malefac-
tor, who had been hanged or broken on the wheel, as of great effi-
cacy in epilepsy, in brain troubles, and as a styptic fur hemorrhages
(p. 11).
Such a moss, if dried, powdered, and taken as snuff, will cure the
headache." — (Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 277, article
" Physical Charms," quoting Grose. The same reference is given by
Pettigrew, " Medical Superstitious," p. 86.)
HUMAN BRAIN.
The human brain, dissolved or distilled in spirits of wine, was em-
ployed in nerve troubles and as an anti-epileptic. — (Flemming, " De
Remediis ex. Corpore Humano desumtis," p. 10.)
ORDURE AND URINE IX MEDICINE. 361
LICE.
One might iufer that habits of personal cleanliness did not prevail in
England two centuries ago, judging from the terms of the following
prescription, which seemingly takes as a matter of course that the
patient could at any time obtain the insects needed : —
" For the cure of sore eyes . . . take two or three lice out of one's
head ; put them under the lid." — (" Rare Secrets in Physicke," col-
lected by the Comtesse of Kent, London, 1 654, p. 75.)
The author of this work knows, from disagreeable personal experi-
ence and observation, that the Indians of North America very generally
were addicted to the disgusting practice of cleaning each other's heads
and putting all captured prey in their mouths. Such an office was
considered a very delicate attention to be paid by a woman to her
husband or lover, or from male friend to male friend, while on a cam-
paign. No instance was noted of the use in a medical sense of these
troublesome parasites.
MOSS GROWING ON THE HEAD OF A STATLE.
" It is asserted that a plant growing on the head of a statue gath-
ered in the lappet of any one of the garments, and then attached with
a red string to the neck, is an instantaneous cure for the headache."
(Pliny, lib. xxiv. c. 106.) This would seem to be germane to the idea
of moss growing on the human skull.
WOOL.
" The ancient Komaus attributed to wool a degree of religious im-
portance even ; and it was in this spirit that they enjoined that the
bride should touch the door-posts of her husband's house with wool."
— (Pliny, lib. xxix. cap. 10.)
" In Cumberland, England, a reputed cure for earache is the appli-
cation of a bit of wool from a black sheep, moistened in cow's urine.
Possibly it is a modified form of this latter notion that is found at
Mount Desert, where it is said that the wool must be wet in new milk ;
while in Vermont, to be efficacious, it is thought that the wool must
be gathered from the left side of the neck of a perfectly black sheep.
In other localities, negro's wool is a reputed cure for the same pain.
It seems almost incredible, whatever their origin, that remedies of so
offensive a character as many of those above given can still retain a
362 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
place even in the rudest traditional pharmacopoeia ; but there seems to
be in the uneducated human mind a sort of reverence for or faith in
that which is in itself disagreeable or repulsive. This idea apparently
rules instead of rational judgment in the selection of many popular
remedies in the shape of oils of the most loathsome description, such
as " skunk-oil," " angle-worm oil " (made by slowly rendering earth-
worms in the sun), " snake-oil " of various kinds, etc. — (" Animal and
Plant Lore," Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, in " Popular Science Monthly,"
.New York, September, 1888, p. 058.)
In the application of human blood and human skulls just presented,
one feature must be patent to the most superficial student ; in the
treatment of epilepsy, the blood or the skull was, preferentially, to be
that of a dying gladiator or a criminal. There was evidently a reason
for this, beyond mere expediency.
Gladiatorial games were instituted as sacred games, in which the
victims to be offered in sacrifice were determined by the destiny of
the combat. Long after man's better reason and better nature had
revolted against the loathsome rites of human sacrifice, religion and
custom still held him in their clutches. He would not offer up his
own progeny, as of yore, but he still continued to immolate captives
taken in war, as so many gladiators had been, or offenders against
the laws.
The victim generally shared with the sacrificing priest the honor
of representing the deity in whose name his life was to be taken.
Consequently he became holy ; everything belonging to him became
" medicine," and in no disease could it be administered more effica-
ciously than in epilepsy, — the essentially " sacred disease " (morbus
sacer) sent direct from the gods.
Moreover, criminals executed for violations of the laws of conquering
nations, or for infractions of the discipline, or contempt of the doctrines
of a triumphant religion, might, by the conquered rustics, who still
cherished a half-concealed veneration for the old rulers and supplanted
rites, be looked upon as martyrs, whose bones, blood, and crania
would relieve disease and drive away misfortune.
The idea of sanctity, too, attached to " innocent maids and boys,"
whose undefiled blood might rectify the polluted fluid that coursed
languidly through the veins of the leper.
The belief that the gods are to be gratified and propitiated by the
spectacle of human suffering, especially when self-inflicted, has been
ORDURE AND URINE IN" MEDICINE. 363
current from the first ages of the world, and will most probably last,
in one form or another, as long as the world shall last. It has cropped
out in every shape, from the rigorous abstinence of the ascetic to the
brutal flagellation of the fanatical devotee, and from that to the emas-
culation of the Galli, the Khlysthi, and the Hottentot, and the
self-immolation of the servant of Juggernath. Maurice enumerates
five different kinds of meritorious suicide yet recognized in Hiudostau,
and we have no reason for refusing to believe that our own ancestois
were saturated with the same false notions, which, retaining their
hold upon the minds of an illiterate peasantry, would surround with
the mystery of holiness any act of self-destruction attributable to
mania or other impulse supposed to be from on high.
BONES AND TEETH. MARROW.
" If a circle is traced round an ulcer with a human bone, it will be
effectually prevented from spreading." — (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 11.)
Etmuller believed that by the use of an unbroken human bone it
was possible to induce as copious a purgation as might be desired.
" Beneficio ossis humani integri potest fieri purgatio artihcialis tanta
quantum volumus,'' etc. — (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 273.)
" ' Holy oyle of dead men's bones,' good for the ' falling sickness.' "
— ("The Xewe Jewell of Health," George Baker, Chirurgeon, Lon-
don, 1576, black letter, p. 170.
Beckherius prescribed human bones in medicine. — (See "Med. Mi-
crocos.," p. 252 et seq.)
Etmuller, not content with prescribing the bones ground into pow-
der, also directed the administration of human marrow (voL ii. p. 268).
HUMAN TEETH.
" A tooth taken from a body before burial," worn as an amulet,
cured toothache. — (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 12.)
"The first tooth that a child has shed," worn as an amulet, protects
from pain in the uterus. — (Idem, lib. xxviii. c. 7.)
Pounded dead men's teeth were used in fumigating the genitalia
of persons " ligated " by witchcraft. — (See Frommann, " Tract, de
Fascin.," p. 965.)
Etmuller taught that the teeth were similar to the bones, aud used
in the alleviation of the same infirmities. Those drawn from the jaws
of a man who had died a violent death were highly commended for
364 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
all sickness brought on by ■witchcraft, as well as for loss of virility.
" Ossibus similes sunt deutes, qui ipsi ex homine imprimis violenta
morte interempto commendatur ad morbos per veneflcium, si nimium
et illis fiat suffitus ; item in impotentia" (vol. ii. p. 273).
" Si dentes pueri, imprimis cum cadunt, suspendantur antcquam ad
terram deveniant et ponantur in lamina argenti et suspendantur supra
rnulieres eas pruhibeut impregnari et parere " (idem, p. 263).
Teeth are worn as amulets by pregnant women or ground into
powder, and taken in a potion ; in both forms, believed to be useful in
averting the plague. Powdered teeth, drunk in wine, cured epilepsy,
and restored impaired virility. — (Flemming, " De Eemediis," p. 13.)
"Knock a tooth that is pulled out into the bark of a young tree." —
(Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology," vol. iii. p. 1173.)
Human teeth, bones, and other parts of dead bodies are still used
by the negroes in our Southern States in their " voudoo " ceremonies,
and as charms, in the old-time belief that their possession secures a
man invisibility. See an article on this subject in the " Evening
Star," of Washington, D. C, January 1, 1889.
" In North Hants, a tooth taken from the mouth of a corpse is often
enveloped in a little bag and worn around the neck to secure the
wearer against headache. ... In the northeast of Scotland, the suf-
ferer was required to pull with his own teeth a tooth from the skull."
— ("Folk-Medicine," Black, p. 98.)
The use of human teeth and fingers as "charms," "amulets," and
" medicine," will be treated of in another work, at greater length. At
present it will be sufficient to call attention to the great potency asso-
ciated in the minds of the American aborigines with such relics. The
author obtained, in one of General Crook's campaigns, in a battle with
the Northern Cheyennes, in northern Wyoming, in the winter of 1876,
a necklace of human fingers, the prized adornment and " medicine "
of the chief medicine-man. This curious link between the savagery
of America and the superstitions of Europe is now in the National
Museum, Washington, D. C.
Flemming prescribed the ground bones of criminals (raw or burnt),
as an internal medicine for gout, dysentery, etc. ; but he did not limit
himself to human bones, as he expressly states that, as a substitute,
the bones of horses, asses, or other beasts could be employed. (" De
Eemediis," p. 12.)
OEDUKE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 365
TARTAR IMPURITIES FROM THE TEETH.
Paullini goes so far as to recommend the use of the tartar impurities
from the teeth, and the dirt from soiled stockings, as a remedy for
nose-bleed. (Paullini, p. 52.)
In this he most probably follows an ancient line of practice, of
which other authors have neglected to give a detailed account. Galen
and others have shown that the scrapings from the body, and all
other " sordes " were used medicinally, and there was no reason why
dental tartar should not be added to the materia medica.
RENAL AND BILIARY CALCULI. HUMAN BILE.
Calculi were used in the treatment of calculary troubles and in
childbirth. — (Pliny, lib. xxvii. cap. 9. See also Galen.)
Prescribed for stone in the bladder or kidneys by Beckherius. —
("Med. Microcosmus," pp. 167-170.)
Flemming advocates the same use of them. — (" De Remediis,"
p. 23.)
" A man's stone, drunk fasting, is most powerful of any to break the
stone and expel it with the urine." — " The Poor Man's Physician,"
Moncrief, p. 131.)
Flemming also used biliary calculi in the cure of yellow jaundice.
— ("De Remediis," p. 14.)
Human bile was used internally in epilepsy, and externally in deaf-
ness and ulcerations of the ear. — (Idem.)
BEZOAR STONES. LTNCURIUS.
From the most ancient times there were used in the medical prac-
tice of Europe certain stones, known as belemnites, thunder-stones,
lyncurius, etc., believed to be efficacious in treatment of stone in the
bladder. This lyncurius was regarded as the coagulated urine of the
lynx, and under that phase of the case properly comes within the scope
of this volume. — ■ (See " Pomet on Drugs," English translation, Lou-
don, 1738, p. 408.)
The " bezoar " stone, so frequently alluded to by old writers, was
simply excrementitious matter hardened in an animal's stomach.
COSMETICS.
Pigeon's dung was applied externally for all spots and blemishes on
the face. (Pliny, lib. xxx. cap. 9.) Mouse-dung, externally, for lichens.
366 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
(Idem.) "Brand Marks " (stigmata) were removed by using pigeon's
dung diluted in vinegar. (Idem, lib. xxx. cap 10.) Crocodile-dung, or
" crocodilea," removed blemishes from the face. (Idem, lib. xxxviii.
caps. 29, 50.) It also removed freckles.
" An application of bull-dung, they say, will impart a rosy tint to
the cheeks, and not even crocodilea is better for the purpose." —
(Idem, lib. xxviii. cap. 50.)
Galen alludes to the extensive use as a cosmetic, by the Greek and
Roman ladies, of the dung of the crocodile ; in the same manner, the
dung of starlings that had been fed on rice alone was employed. —
(Galen, " Opera Omnia," Kuhn's edition, lib. xxx. p. 308.)
Dioscorides prescribed crocodile-dung as a beautifier of the faces of
women. — (" Mat. Med.," vol. i. p. 222 et seq.)
Bull- dung was used by women as a cosmetic to remove all facial
blemishes. — (Sextus Placitus, " De Med. ex Animal.," article " De
Tauro.")
The urine of a boy took away freckles from a face washed with it.
"Ad profluvium mulieris, si locum ssepe lotio viri laverit." For birth-
marks on children take the crust which gathers on urine standing in
chamber-pots, break up and bake ; place the child in the bath, and
rub the marks well. "Ad maculas infantium, matellas quae crustem
ex lotio duxerint. fractae et coctse, in balneo infantem, si ex eo un-
xeris omnia supra-scripta emendat." — (Idem, " De Puello et Paella
Virgine.")
Beckherhis approved of the use of the meconium of infants to erase
birthmarks. — ("Med. Microcos.," p. 113.)
Etmuller states that from cow-dung, as well as from human ordure,
by repeated digestion and distillation and sublimation, was prepared
" Zibethum Occidentale," so named by Paracelsus. From this was
distilled the " water of all flowers," so termed because the cattle had
eaten so many flowers in their pasturage. This was passing good as a
cosmetic to remove pimples and all kinds of blotches.
Human ordure itself was made use of for the same purpose (vol. ii.
p. 171).
" T is stale to have a coxcomb kiss your hands
'While yet the chamber-lye is scarce wiped off. "
("Ram Alley," Ludowick Barry, London, 1611, edition of London, 1825.)
Dog-urine was prescribed to restore the color of the hair. — (Avi-
cenna, vol. ii. p. 333, a 50.)
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE. 367
" Alopecia " (hairiness) was cured by mouse-dung (idem, vol. i. p. 300,
b50), and by "stercus caprarum." — (Idem, vol. i. p. 389, b 53.)
" Urina canis putrefacta conservat nigredinem capillorum." — (Idem,
vol. ii. p. 333, a 50.)
Ileclus says that even now, in Paris, many people who have within
reach the best of toilet waters prefer to use urine as a detersive. —
(See " Les Primitifs," p. 72, " Les Inoits Occidentaux.")
The Ove-herero, living south of Angola, West Africa, rub their
bodies with dry cow-dung to impart lustre. — (" Muhongo," interpreted
by Rev. Mr. Chatelain.)
" Aqua omnium florum " was distilled from the dung of cows dropped
in the month of May. " Verno sen Maiali tempore ... ex stercore
recenti vaccte herbas depascentis." (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 249.) " Ex
hoc ipso stercore, eodem modo atque ex stercore humane- per d •_
tionom et sublimationem, repetitam potest preparari Zibethum Occi-
dentale, sic dictum a Paracelso, quoniam suavem spirat instar Zihethi.
Destillatur aqua ex hoc stercore quae vocatur aqua omnium florum,
quia bos iunumeris floribus vescitur ; haec aqua omnium florum est
singulare cosmeticum application externe delendis uaevis et maculis in
facie."— (Etmuller, vol. ii. pp. 249, 250.)
Some people added to this a " water distilled from the sperm of
frogs." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 171, 172.)
Catamenial blood was supposed to be a remedy for pimples on the
face. (Idem, p. 20">.) In portions of Northern Mexico the women
apply it to their faces as a beautifier.
Cow-dung was very generally relied upon in this sense. The dung
of a black cow entered into the composition of the celebrated " Eau de
Mille Flenrs." The ordure of small lizards was also used to smooth
out the wrinkles from the faces of old women.
Fox-dung and the dung of sparrows and starlings were in use for
softening the hands. Arabian women use as a cosmetic a mixture of
saffron and chicken-dung. Cow-dung is sometimes as aromatic as
musk. It used to be employed to restore the odor to old and faded
musk, or to hang the latter in a privy, where it would re-acquire
its former strength ; but would not retain it long (see under
"Latrines").
To improve the complexion Paullini recommended a water dis-
tilled from human excrements ; also the worms that grow therein
distilled to a water. The cosmetic of country wenches is their own
urine.
368 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Human excrements have peculiar salts more strengthening and use-
ful than soap. A young girl improved her complexion wonderfully by
washing her face in cow-dung and drinking her brother's urine fresh
and warm, while fasting (pp. 263, 264).
Other cosmetics commended by Paullini were human ordure, exter-
nally ; the ordure of a young boy, internally ; " Eau de Millefleurs,"
the excreta of lizards, crocodiles, foxes, sparrows, starlings, chickens, or
of cows gathered in May, externally.
See also pages 172, 207.
For the eradication of freckles Paullini also recommended the exter-
nal application of the excrement of donkeys, dogs, chickens, crocodiles,
foxes, or pigeons.
Schurig was a champion of " Aqua ex stercore distillata," for all
facial embellishment. — (" Chylologia," p. 762.)
" II y a plus ; les femmes les plus belles s'en sont barbouille le
visage, et Saint Jerome le reproche durement aux dames de son
temps." In a footnote is added this explanation: "On a employe
des excr^mens de quelques lizards d'Egypte comme cosmetique, a
cause de leur odeur musquee." ("Bib. Scat.," p. 21.) " Merde de
Lezard c'est le cordilea, excrement du stellion du Levant, employe
comme cosmetique." — (Idem, p. 123.)
" Wash the face with the diaper on which a new-born babe has
urinated for the first time, it will remove freckles." — (Cape Breton,
Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge, Mass.)
This belief in the cosmetic power of the first renal discharge of a
child is generally diffused all over the United States.
" Enfin, les nourrices entre nous, ont l'habitude de frotter la figure
de leurs nourrissans avec les langes imbibes de leur urine. Cela les
fait venir beau, disent-elles, cela combat en tout cas, certaines effloresce-
ments cutanees chez les enfants, par l'ammoniaque." — (Personal
letter from Doctor Bernard, Cannes, France.)
Prof. Patrice de Janon states that the ladies of his native place,
Carthagena, South America, to his personal knowledge, were in the
habit of using their own urine as a face lotion, and to beautify and
soften the skin.
Horse-dung was another face lotion. — (" A Pich Storehouse or
Treasurie for the Diseased," Ealph Blower, London, 1616, p. 106.)
Goose-dung is in repute in the State of Indiana for removing pimples.
— (Mrs. Bergen.)
Mr. Sylvester Baxter says that young women in Massachusetts, at
ORDURE AND URINE IX MEDICINE. 369
least until very recently, have employed human urine as a wash for
the preservation of the complexion.
" Water that stands in the concavity of a patch of cow-dung " is the
belief in Walden, Mass., according to Mrs. Bergen, who thus shows a
transplantation of the same belief which has lingered in Europe from
remote ages.
24
3,0 SCATALOGIO KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XLII.
AMULETS AND TALISMANS.
A S a connecting link between pharmacy proper and the antidotes to
the effects of witchcraft, and at the same time fully deserving of a
separate place on its own merits, may be inserted a chapter upon
talismans and amulets made of excrementitious materials.
"From the cradle, modern Englishmen are taught to fight an angry
battle against superstition, and they treat a talisman or charm with
some disdain and contempt. But let us reflect that those playthings
tended to quiet and reassure the patient, to calm his temper, and soothe
his nerves, — objects, which, if we are not misinformed, the best practi-
tioners of our own day willingly obtain by such means as are left
them.
Whether a wise physician will deprive a humble patient of his roll
of magic words or take from his neck the fairy stone, I do not know ;
but this is certain, that the Christian church of that early day, and the
medical science of the empire by no means refused the employment of
these arts of healing, these balms of superstitious origin.
" The reader may enjoy his laugh at such devices, but let him remem-
ber that dread of death and wakeful anxiety must be hushed by some
means, for they are very unfriendly to recovery from disease." — ("Saxon
Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 11.)
Cat-dung, " to be attached to the body with the toe of a horned
owl " and "not to be removed until the seventh paroxysm is passed,"
■was the amulet recommended by Pliny for the cure of the quartan
fever. — (Lib. xxviii. c. 66.)
Sextus Placitus, " De Puello et Puella Virgine," recommends the
use of calculi to aid in the expulsion of calculi, either ground into a
powder or hung about the patient's neck as an amulet ; in the latter
case, he says, the cure is more gradual.
Roman matrons used a small stone found in the excrement of a hind
"attached to the body as an amulet," as "a preventive of abortion."
— (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 77.)
AMl'LETS AND TALISMANS. 371
In retarded dentition, there was a bag suspended from the infant's
neck, in which was a powder, made of equal parts of the dung of hares,
wolves, and crows. — (Schurig, " Chylologia," p. 820).
"Wolf's dung, borne with one, helps the colic." — (Burton, "Anat-
omy of Melancholy," vol. ii. p. 13-1.)
Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," 1G21, p. 17G, has the fol-
lowing passage on this subject : " Amulets I find prescribed ; taxed by
some, approved by others."' — (Quoted by Brand, "Pop. Aut." vol. ii.
p. 324, article " Amulets.")
No explanation can be ventured upon for the following charm, which
had a very extended dissemination throughout Europe, and can be
traced back to " Saxon Leechdoms," vol. x. p. 33.
"Many magic writings are simply invocations of the devil ... A
woman obtained an amulet to cure sore eyes. She refrained from
shedding tears and her eyes recovered. On a zealous friend opening
the paper, these words were found : " Der teufel kratze dir die augeu
aus, und scheisse dir in die locher," and, naturally, wheu the woman
saw that it was in this she had trusted, she lost faith, began to weep
again, and in due time found her eyes as bad as ever. (" Folk Medi-
cine," Black, p. 171.) The same charm was also, in other places,
written in Latin, in this form : " Diabolus effodiat tibi oculos, impleat
foramina stercoribus." It is quoted by Pettigrew, in " Medical Supersti-
tious, p. 102; also by Brand, "Pop. Aut." vol. iii. p. 324, article
"Characts."
Translated into English it is thus rendered by Eeginald Scot : —
" The devil pull out both thine eyes,
And etihs in the holes likewise."
"Spell the word backward and you shall see this charm." — (" Dis-
co verie of witchcraft," London, 1651, p. 178.)
"For diphtheria, a poultice consisting of the fresh excrement of the
hog, is worn about the neck for one night. (Fayette County.) —
("Folk-Lore of the Penu'a Germans," in "Journal of American Folk-
Lore," 1889, p. 29, W. J. Hoffman, M. D.)
For diseases in the kidneys, as an amulet xapafipawO, which means
" viscera " in Hebrew : " In cubili canis urinam faciat qui urinam non
potest coutinere, dicatque dum facit, ne in cubili suo urinam ut canis
faciat." — ("Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 31. See also under Grand
Lama, love -philters, mistletoe, witchcraft.)
Each and every one of the remedies inserted here under the title of
372 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Witchcraft," might with perfect propriety have been comprehended
uuder the caption of " Pharmacy," but the intention was to differentiate
the two in the hope of attaining greater clearness in treatment. Under
" Pharmacy," therefore, have been retained all remedies for the allevia-
tion of known disorders, while under "Witchcraft" are tabulated all
that were to be administered or applied for the amelioration of ailments
of an obscure type, the origin of which the ignorant sufferer would un-
hesitatingly seek in the malevolence of supernatural beings or in the
machinations of human foes possessed of occult influences. Side by
side with these, very properly go all such aids as were believed to
insure better fortune in money-making, travelling, etc.
" A mixture of ape's-dung and chameleon-dung was applied to the
doors of one's enemy. . . . He will, through its agency, become the
object of universal hatred." — (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 29.)
" The excrements (i. e. of the hyena) which have been voided by
the animal at the moment when killed, are looked upon as counter-
charms to magic spells." — (Idem, c. 27.)
"For young girls they (i. e. the magicians) prescribe nine pellets of
hare's dung to ensure a durable firmness to the breasts." — (Idem,
c. 77.)
Doctor Dupouy believes that when the Druids " were forced to take
refuge in dense forests far removed from the people, persecuted by the
Romans, barbarians, and Christians, thejT progressively became magi-
cians, enchanters, prophets, and charmers, condemned by the Councils
and banished by the civil authority. It is at this epoch that evil
spirits were noticed prowling around in the shadows of night and in-
dulging in acts of obscene depravity. ... In the seventh century
Druidism diasppeared, but the practice of magic, occult art, and the
mysterious science of spirits were transmitted from generation to gen-
eration but lessened in losing the philosophical character of ancient
times." — (" Le Moyen Age Medical," or its translation, "Physicians
in the Middle Ages," T. C. Minor, M. D., Cincinnati, Ohio, p. 38.)
witchcbaft. 373
XLIII.
WITCHCRAFT. — SORCERY. — CHARMS. — SPELLS. —INCAN-
TATIONS. — MAGIC.
SPHERE is but one method of arriving at a correct understanding of
what witchcraft was, as known to civilized communities, and that
is by placing it under the lens of investigation as a mutilated and dis-
torted survival of a displaced religion.
The very earliest records of man's thought, the alabaster and earthen
tablets of Chaldea and Assyria, allude to the evil eye, to incantations,
and to the fear of evil spirits, witches, and sorcerers.
"Nevertheless, the Chaldean tablets do not leave us without any
insight into witchcraft, as their formulas were destined to counteract
the effects of the sorceries of this impious art, as well as the spontan-
eous action of demons." — ("Chaldean Magic," Francois Lenormant,
London, 1877, p. 59 ; for the Chaldean's dread of the Evil Eye, see
the same work, p. 61.)
"One fine series (i. e. of Chaldean tablets) deals with remedies
against witchcraft." — ("The Chaldean Account of Genesis," George
Smith, New York, 1880, p. 28.)
" There is finally a third species of magic, thoroughly diabolical in
character, and openly acknowledging itself as such. This kind helps
to perpetuate. . . by still believing in their power and transforming
them into dark practices, the rites of adoration of the ancient gods,
considered as demons after the triumph of the new religion, the exclu-
sive spirit of which repudiates all association with the remains of the
old worship. The enchanter in this case, far from considering himself
an inspired and divine personage, consents, provided he reaps all the
benefit of his magic practices, to be nothing more than the tool of the
bad and infernal powers. He himself sees devils in the ancient gods
evoked by his spells, but he nevertheless remains confident of their
protection ; he engages himself in their service by compacts, and fan-
cies himself going to a witch-dance in their company. The greater
374 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
part of the magic of the Middle Ages bears this character and perpet-
uates the popular and superstitious rites of paganism in the mysteri-
ous and diabolical operations of sorcery. It is the same with the
magic of most Mussulmau countries. In Ceylon, since the complete
conversion of the island to Buddhism, the ancient gods of Sivaism have
become demons, and their worship a guilty sorcery practised only by
enchanters." — ("Chaldean Magic," Lenormant, p. 77.)
Human and animal filth are mentioned in nearly every treatise upon
witchcraft, under three different heads : —
Firstly, as the means by which the sorcery is accomplished.
Secondly, as the antidote by which such machinations are frustrated.
Thirdly, as the means of detecting the witch's personality.
Much that might have been included within this chapter has been
arranged under the caption of " Love-Philters " and " Child-Birth, "
and should be examined under those heads.
The subject of amulets and talismans is another that is so closely
connected with the matter of which we are now treating, that it must
be included in any investigation made in reference to it.
Exactly where the science of medicine ended, and the science of
witchcraft began, there is no means of knowing ; like Astrology and
Astronomy, they were twin sisters, issuing from the same womb, and
travelling amicably haud in hand for many years down the trail of
civilization's development; long after medicine had won for herself a
proud position in the world of thought and felt compelled through
shame to repudiate her less-favored comrade in public, the strictest
and closest, relations were maintained in the seclusion of private life.
Among the counter-charms too are reckoned the practice of spitting
into the urine the moment it is voided." — (Pliny, lib, xxviii. cap. 7.)
" Goat's dung attached to infants, in a piece of cloth, prevents them
from being restless, female infants in particular." (Idem, cap. 7S.)
This was probably a survival from times still more ancient, when in-
fants were sometimes suckled by goats, and it was a good plan to have
them thoroughly familiarized with the smell, — the hircine or caprine
odor.
" In cases of fire, if some of the dung can be brought away from the
stalls, both sheep and oxen may be got out all the more easily, and
will make no attempt to return." — (Idem, cap. 81.)
The adepts in magic expressly forbid a person, when about to make
water, to uncover the body in the face of the sun or moon, or to
sprinkle with his urine the shadow of any object whatsoever. Hesiod
WITCHCRAFT. 375
gives a precept recommending persons to make water against an ob-
ject standing full before them, that no divinity may be offended by
their nakedness being uncovered. Osthanes maintains that every one
who drops some urine upon his foot in the morning will be proof
against all noxious medicaments." — (Idem, lib. xxviii. cap. 19.)
The adepts in the magical art also believed that " it is improper
to spit into the sea, or to profane that element by any other of the
evacuations that are inseparable from the infirmities of human nature."
— (Idem, lib. xxx. cap. 6, speaking of the disinclination of the Arme-
nian magician, Tiridates, to visit the Emperor Nero by sea.)
The Thibetans share these scruples. Among the things prohibited
to their " Bhikshuni," or monks and nuns, are : "Ne pas se Boulager
dans de l'eau quand on n'est pas malade, n'y cracher, n'y moncher y
vomir, ni y jeter quoi que soit de sale." — (" Pratimoksha Sutra," trans-
lated by W. W. Rockhill, Paris, 1884,'Soc. Asiatique.)
It was believed that a dog would not bark at a man who carried
hare's dung about his person. — (See Pliny, lib. xxx. cap. 53.)
" The therionaca . . . has the effect of striking wild beasts of all
kinds with a torpor which can only be dispelled by sprinkling them
with the urine of the hyena." (Idem, lib. xxiv. cap. 102.) The hyena
was regarded as an especially "magical" animal. — (Idem, lib. xxviii.)
" The magicians tell us that, after taking the ashes of a wild-boar's
genitals in urine, the patient must make water in a dog-kennel, and
repeat the following formula : "This I do that I may not wet my bed,
as a dog does.' " — (Idem, lib. xxviii. cap. 60.)
Some of these ideas would appear to have crossed the Atlantic. In
the United States, a generation or less ago, boys were wont to urinate
" criss-cross " for good luck, and were careful not to let any of their
urine fall on their own shadows. — (Col. F. A. Seelye, Anthropological
Society, and others, Washington, D. C.)
In Minden, Westphalia, Germany, boys will urinate criss-cross, and
say, " Kreuspissen, morgenstirbstein-Jude " (" Let us piss criss-cross,
a Jew will die to-morrow "). — (Personal letter from Dr. Franz Boas,
Clark University, Worcester, Mass.)
" Nor ever defile the currents of rivers flowing seaward, nor fountains,
but specially avoid it." — (" Opera et Dies," Rev. J. Banks, London,
1856, p. 115.)
" Sorcerers try to procure some of a man's excrement, and put it in
his food in order to kill him." — ("Muhongo," a boy from Angola,
Africa, personal interview, interpretation by Eev. Mr. Chatelain.)
376 SCATALOGIC BITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Muhongo " also said that to " add one's urine, even unintentionally,
to the food of another bewitches that other, and does him grievous
harm."
Democritus says of the stone " aspisatis : " " Patients should
wear it attached to the body with camel's dung." (Quoted in Pliny,
lib. xxvii. cap. 54.) The same book tells us that stones of this kind
were worn generally by gladiators, Milo of Crotona being mentioned
as one. What " aspisatis " was cannot be learned.
" Another thing universally acknowledged, and one which I am
ready to believe with the greatest pleasure, is the fact that if the door-
posts are only touched with the menstruous fluid, all spells of the
magicians will be neutralized." — (Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 24.)
" Osthanes, who accompanied Xerxes, the Persian king, in his expe-
dition against Greece, . . . the first person, so far as I can ascertain,
who wrote upon magic." (Idem, lib. xxx. cap. 3.) He adds, speaking of
magic : " Britannia still cultivates this art, and that with ceremonials
so august that she might almost seem to have been the first to com-
municate them to Persia." — (Idem, lib. xxx. cap. 4.)
For the relief of infants from phantasm, wrap some goat-dung in a
cloth and hang it about the child's neck. "Ad infantes qui fantnsma-
tibus vexantur, capree stercus in panno involutum, et collo suspensum
remedium est infantibus qui fantasmata patiuntur." — (Sextus Placi-
tus, " De Capro.")
" With Plinius was contemporary Joseph or Josephus. The tales
about the mandrake, much later on, and found in the Saxon herbarium,
are traceable to what he says of the Baaras, — an herb that runs away
from the man that wants to gather it, and won't stop until one throws
on it ovpov yvvaiKos rj to e/iju.^vov aT/xa, for nastiness is often an element
of mysteries ; and even then it kills the dog that draws it out. It is
not certain that mandrake berries are meant in Genesis, xxx. 14."- —
(" Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 1G.)
Dulaure says that the repute in which mandrake was held was due
to its resemblance to the human form, and to the lies told to the
superstitious about it, one being that " ils disent qu'il est engendre des-
sous un gibet de l'urine d'un larron pendu." — (" Dcs Differens Cultes,"
Paris, 1825, vol. ii. p. 255, footnote.)
"For a man haunted by apparitions work a drink of a white hound's
thost or dung in bitter ley; wonderfully it healeth." ("Saxon Leech-
doms," vol. i. p. 3G5.) This same " thost," or dung, was recommended
in the treatment of nits and other insects on children, for dropsy (in-
WITCHCRAFT. 377
ternally), and to drive away the "Dwarves," who were believed to have
seized upon the patient afflicted with convulsions.
" Doors of houses are smeared with cow-dung and uimba-leaves, as a
preservative from poisonous reptiles." — (Moor's " Hindu Pantheon,"
London, 1810, p. 23.)
" In some parts of Western Africa, when a man returns home after
a long absence, before he is allowed to visit his wife he must wash his
person with a particular fluid, and receive from the sorcerer a certain
mark on his forehead, in order to counteract any magic spell which a
stranger woman may have cast upon him in his absence, and which
might be communicated through him to the women of his village," —
(" The Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 157.)
We are not informed what this " particular fluid " was, but enough
has been adduced concerning the African's belief in the potency of
human urine in cases similar to the above to warrant the insertion at
this point.
" On returning from an attempted ascent of the great African
mountain, Kilimanjaro, which is believed by the neighboring tribes to
be tenanted by dangerous demons, Mr. New and his party, as soon as
they reached the borders of the inhabited country, were disenchanted
by the inhabitants, being sprinkled with ' a professionally prepared
liquor, supposed to possess the potency of neutralizing evil influences,
and removing the spell of wicked spirits.'" — (Idem, vol. i. p. 151,
quoting Charles New, " Life, Wanderings, and Labors in Eastern
Africa.")
That the Eskimo believed in the power of human ordure to baffle
witchcraft would seem to be intimated in the following from Boas :
" Though the Angekok understood the schemes of the old hag, he fol-
lowed the boy, and sat down with her. She feigned to be very glad to
see him and gave him a dishful of soup, which he began to eat. But
by the help of his tornaq [that is, the magical influence which aided
him] the food fell right through him into a vessel which he had put be-
tween his feet on the floor of the hut. This he gave to the old witch,
and compelled her to eat it. She died as soon as she had brought the
first spoonful to her mouth." — (" The Central Eskimo," Franz Boas,
in " Sixth Annual Report " Bureau of Ethnology, Washington.)
"Osthanes, the magician, prescribed the dipping of our feet, in the
morning, in human urine, as a preventative against charms." —
(Brand, " Pop. Ant.," vol. iii. p. 286.)
Frommann writes that human ordure, menses, and semen were
378 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
mixed in the food of the person to be bewitched. — (" Tractatus de
Fascinatione," p. 683.)
On another page this list is increased to read that human ordure,
urine, blood, hair, nails, bones, skulls, and the moss growing on the
last-named, as well as animal excrement, were among the materials
employed in witchcraft." — (Idem, p. 684.)
If fried beans be thrown into excrement, for each bean thus wasted
a pustule will appear on the fundament of the thrower. " Pisa frixa
injecta excrementis tot pustulas in podice excitant quot pisa."
(Idem, p. 1023.) The following passage is not fully understood :
" Vesicatorio excrementis adhuc calentibus imposito intestina corro-
sione afficiuntur." It seems to mean that the entrails will be affected
with corrosion when hot excrement is placed in a bladder, probably
after the manner of some of the sausages of which we have elsewhere
taken notes. Hot ashes or cinders thrown upon recently voided
excrement will cause inflammation and pustules in ano. For the same
reason we can cause those who are absent to purge without using
medicine upon them. " Cineres calidi, vel prunse candentes scybalis
recent ibus injecta inflammationem et pustulas in ano excitant. . . .
Eadein ratione absentes sine medicamentis purgari posse, scribit Tile-
mannus de Mater. Medic, p. 251. (Idem, p. 1623.) Frommann also
adds that this fact was well known to the English and French, as well
as to the Germans." — (Idem, p. 1037.)
Human ordure and urine were burned with live coals as a potent
charm. The person whose excreta had been burned would suffer ter-
rible pains in the rectum. But this could be used in two ways,
for love as well as hatred could be induced by this means, between
married people and between old friends. — (Paullini, pp. 264, 265.)
For the use of urine by the Eskimo to ward off the maleficence of
witches, turn back to citations taken from Rink's " Tales and Tra-
ditions of the Eskimo," where it is shown that they still use it with
this object in cases of childbirth. See, also, the notes takeu from the
writings of Dr. Franz Boas.
A bone from the leg or thigh of a man who had died a violent
death, emptied of its marrow, and then filled with human ordure,
closed up with wax, and placed in boiling water, compelled the unfor-
tunate ejector of the excrement to evacuate just as long as the bone
was kept in the water, and it could even be so used that he would be
compelled to defile his bed every night. " Os ex pede, vel brachio, vel
femore hominis violenta morte interempti, et hoc exempta medulla
■WITCHCRAFT. 379
impletur cum stercore alioujus hominis, foramina obturantur cum cera
et sic in aquam calidam immittitur, hoc quamdiu jacet iu aqua calida,
tamdiu expurgatur iste, cujus stercus fuit inclusum, adeo ut sic ali-
quem usque ad mortem purgare possimus, potest etiam fieri alio modo
ut quis omni nocte lectum suum maculet, sed est ludicrum." — (Et-
muller, vol. ii. pp. 272, 273.)
The small bones of the human leg are used in the sorcery of the
Australians. (See "Native Tribes of South Australia," Adelaide,
1879, p. 276 ; received through the kindness of the Royal Society,
Sydney, New South Wales, F. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)
" In order to produce a flux in the belly, it was only necessary to
put a patient's excrement into a human bone, and throw it into a
stream of -water." The above is quoted from the medical writings of
" Peter of Spain, who was archbishop, and afterwards pope, under the
name of John XXI." — (" Physicians of the Middle Ages," T. C.
Minor, p. G.)
Schurig names many authors to show that in cases of "incivility,"
such as the placing of excrement at the door of one's neighbor, the
person offended had a sure remedy in his own hands. He was to take
some of the excrement of the offending party, mix it with live coals
or hot ashes, and throw it out in the street ; or he could burn pepper
and wine together, with such fecal matter ; or he could heat an iron
to white heat, insert it in the excrement, and as fast as it cooled
repeat the operation ; as often as this was done, so often would the
guilty one suffer pains in the anus. Other remedies were, to mix
spirits of wine and salt together, sprinkle upon the offensive matter,
then place a red-hot iron above it, and confer the same pains, which
would not leave the offending person's anus during the whole of that
day, unless he cured himself with new milk. Or small peas could be
heated in a frying-pan, and then thrown out with fresh excrement ; as
many as there were peas, so many would be the pains endured by the
delinquent. The following are some of the paragraphs in the original
from Schurig : " Contra incivilitatem quorundam qui loca consueta et
fores aliorum stercoribus suis commaculant, pro correctione inservire
potest, si fimus eorundem simpliciter prunis aut cineribus calidis in-
jectus vel etiam vino adusto et pipere simul insperso uratur vel ere-
metur; aut si vero vel aliud ferrum in ignem ut ignescat, immittatur,
ac dein ferrum illud candens in excrementa ilia infigatur ; frigefactum
denuom calefiat eademque opera ssepe repetatur ; tunc tantis cruciati-
bus nates depositoris illius incivilito vexabit, quantas vix prunte ipsas
380 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
partibus iisdem admotse inussissent. . . . Excretnentis horninis re-
centibus prunas eandentes vel ciueres calidos injectos inflarnrnationem,
teuesimum, et pustulas excitare, non Anglis et Gallis tantum sed et
Germanis atque ex his nostratibus etiam est notissimum," etc. The
names of the authorities cited by Schurig are not repeated. — (" Chy-
lologia," pp. 790, 791.)
" The Australians believe that their magicians ' possess the power'
to create disease and death by burning what is called 'nahak.'
Nahak means rubbish, but principally, refuse of food. Everything of
the kind they bury or throw into the sea, lest the disease-makers
should get hold of it." (" Native Tribes of South Australia,"
Adelaide, 1879, p. 23.) Reference to "Nahak" is to be found iu
" Samoa," Turner, p. 320.
The old home of the Cheyennes of Dakota was in the Black Hills ;
and there the Sioux believed that the Cheyennes were invincible,
because their medicine-men could make everything out of buffalo
manure. — (Personal Notes of Captain Bourke.)
Although Livingston's " Zambesi " is filled with allusions to witch-
craft, there is no instance given of the employment of any of the
remedies herein described.
" The belief in witchcraft, and in the efficacy of charms and incan-
tations, was strong among the middle and lower classes of Germany
about forty years ago. ... In the winter of 1845-46, I attended a
night-school in my native town, Schorndorf, in the little kingdom of
Wurtemburg. There was a blacksmith-shop in the near neighborhood
of the school, where work was kept up until a late hour of the night.
The miniature fireworks created by the sparks flying from the blows of
the immense hammers wielded by the dusky and weird-like forms of the
sons of Vulcan, were one of the principal amusements of the schoolboys,
and we used to stand at a distance in the dark, before school opened,
gazing with awe and wonderment at the brilliant and noisy scene before
us. The master blacksmith, on account of his irascible disposition, was
not much in favor with us, and it was agreed upon to play him a trick.
So one evening while the smiths were at their supper and the smithy
unattended, two of the boys smeared the hammer-handles with excre-
ment. The indignation of the smiths was of course great, and with
curses and imprecations on the guilty parties they commenced to clean
their implements, when suddenly stopped by the master, who, with a
fiendish smile on his face, declared that he had concluded to make an
example of the offenders. He bade the apprentice to work at the
WITCHCRAFT. 381
bellows, and then, one after the other, he held the smeared hammer-
handles over the forge fire, turning and twisting them the while, and
uttering some unintelligible incantations in a low and solemn voice,
the workmen standing round him with awe and terror on their sooty
countenances. When the ceremony was over, the master declared that
it was rather hard on the culprits, whose rectums must be in a fright-
ful condition, but that, unless an example were made, such dirty tricks
might be repeated, and this would serve as a warning to the boys in
general. We boys had been tremblingly watching the whole pro-
ceedings, expecting that some fearful catastrophe would befall us, and
I need not state that we were somewhat disappointed when we found
ourselves unscathed, although it upset our belief in humbugs of this
kind." — (Personal letter from Mr. Charles Smith, Washington,
D. C.)
" Amongst some of the Brazilian Indians, when a girl attains pu-
berty, ... if she have a call of nature, a female relative takes the
girl on her back and carries her out, taking with her a live coal, to
prevent evil influences from entering the girl's body." — (" The Golden
Bough," Frazer, vol. ii. p. 231.)
"To unbewitch the bewitched, you must spit into the pisse-pot
where you have made water." — (Reg. Scot, " Disc, of Witchcraft,"
p. 62.)
"The Shamans of the Thlinkeets of Alaska keep their urine until
its smell is so strong that the spirits cannot endure it.'' — (Franz
Boas, in "Journal of American Folk-Lore," vol. i. p. 218.)
In the third volume of the " History of the Inquisition," by Henry
C. Lea, New York, 1888, there is a chapter on "Sorcery and Occult
Arts," but there is no allusion to the use of excrement in any form.
Neither is there anything to be found in Dalyell's " Superstitions of
Scotland," Edinburgh, 1834.
The sacred drink, "hum," of the Parsis, has "the urine of a young,
pure cow " as one of the ingredients. (See Max Midler's " Biographies
of Words," London, 1888, p. 237.) This sacred drink is also used "as
an ottering during incantations." — (Idem.)
Schurig ("Chylologia," p. 815) states that horse-dung was sometimes
used in " sympathetic magic : " " Iutcrdum etiam ad Sympathiam
magicam adhibetur ; " and he recites an instance wherein a certain
farmer, whose meadows were overrun by the horses of his neighbors,
was enabled by taking a portion of the dung they had dropped and
hanging it up in his chimney, to drive them all into a consumption.
382 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
The following seems to have been in the nature of an incantation
closely allied to the above. Two Yakut chiefs contended for suprem-
acy; one, named Onagai, defeated and banished his rival, who escaped
with only his wife and two mares. This second chief, Aley, collected
carefully the dung of his mares, and when the wind blew towards Ona-
gai's dwelling, made fires of the dung, the smell of which allured the
strayed cattle to his dwelling." — (Sauer, "Exped. to the N. parts of
Russia," London, 1802, p. 133. This "Aley," according to Tartar
tradition, was skilled in magic art. See idem, p. 135.)
" He who wishes to revenge himself by witchcraft endeavors to
procure either the saliva, urine, or excrements of his enemy, and after
mixing them with a powder, and putting them into a bag woven in a
particular form, he buries them." — (Krusenstern's " Voy. round the
World," Eng. trans., Loudon, 1813, vol. i. p. 174, speaking of the island
of Nukahiva.)
Langsdorff says that in the Washington islands, when a man desires
to bewitch an enemy, he endeavors to procure " some of his hair, the
remains of something he has been eatiug, and some earth on which he
has spit or made water." — (" Voyages," London, 1813, p. 156.)
The Rev. W. Ellis, speaking of the Tahitians, says : " The parings
of nails, a lock of the hair, the saliva from the mouth, or other secre-
tions from the body, or else a portion of the food which the person was
to eat, this was considered as the vehicle by which the demon en-
tered the person who afterwards became possessed. . . . The sorcerer
took the hair, saliva, or other substance, which had belonged to his
victim, to his house, or marae, performed his incantations over it, and
offered his prayers ; the demon was then supposed to enter the sub-
stance (called tubu), and through it to the individual who had suffered
from the enchantment." — ("Polynesian Researches," vol. ii. p. 228,
quoted in " The Nat. Trib. of S. Australia," p. 25.)
" If the death of any obnoxious person is desired to be procured by
sorcery, the malevolent native secures a portion of his enemy's hair,
refuse of food, or excrement ; these substances are carried in a bag
specially reserved for the artillery of witchcraft, a little wallet which
is slung over the shoulders. The refuse of food is subjected to special
treatment, part of which is scorching and melting before a fire ; but,
in the case of excrement, my information is to the effect that it is just
allowed to moulder away, and as it decays the health and strength of
the enemy is supposed to decline contemporaneously. Excrement is
thus employed in the south of Queensland." — (Personal letter from
WITCHCRAFT. 383
John Matthew, Esq., M. A., dated " The Manse," Coburg, Victoria,
Nov. 29, 1889. This correspondent has had a great deal of experience
with the savages of Australia.)
The Patagouians have the belief that their witches can do harm to
those from whom they obtain any exuviae or excrement, — " if they can
possess themselves of some part of their intended victim's body, or
that which has proceeded from it, such as hair, pieces of nails, etc. ;
and this superstition is the more curious from its exact accordance
with that so prevalent in Polynesia." — (''Voyage of the Adventure
and Beagle," quoting the Jesuit Falkner, vol. ii. p. 163.)
There was some ill-defined relation between the power of urination
and virginity. Burton speaks of " such strange, absurd trials in Al-
bertus Magnus. ... by stones, perfumes, to make them piss and
confess I know not what in their sleep." — (" Anat. of Melancholy,"
vol. ii. p. 451.)
Speaking of the Australians, Smith says : " The only remarkable
custom (differing from other savages) in their fighting expeditious, is
the adoption of the custom commanded to the Israelites on going out
to war. (Deut. c. 23, ver. 12-14, — about hiding excrement.) The
natives believe that if the enemy discovered it, they would burn it in
the fire, and thus ensure their collective destruction, or that, individ-
ually, they would pine away and die." — ("Aborigines of Victoria,"
vol. i. p. 165.)
" In the middle of the hall . . . was a vase, of which the contents
were at least as varied as those of the caldron of Macbeth ; a mixture,
in part, composed of nameless ingredients." — (" Dictionnaire Fniver-
sel du XlXrae Siecle," by P. Larousse, quoted in " Reports of Voudoo
Worship in Hayti and Louisiana," by W. W. Newell, iu "Jour, of
Amer. Folk- Lore," Jan.-March, 1889, p. 43.)
There is on record the confession of a young French witch, Jeanne
Bosdean, at Bordeaux, 1594, wherein is described a witches' mass, at
which the devil appeared in the disguise of a black buck, with a cau-
dle between his horns. When holy water was needed, the buck uri-
nated in a hole in the ground and the officiating witch aspersed it upon
the congregation with a black sprinkler. Jeanne Bosdean adhered to
her story even when in the flames.1
One of the ceremonies of the initiation of the neophytes into witch-
1 Pour faire de 1'eau fenite le Bouc pissoit dans un trou a terre et celui qui faisoit
l'office en arrosoit les assistants avec un asperge noir. — (Thiers, Superstitions, etc.,
vol ii. book 4, cap. 1, p. 367. See the same story in Picart, vol. viii. p 69.)
384 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
craft was " kissing the devil's bare buttocks." (Reg. Scot. " Discov-
erie," pp. 36, 37.) Pope Gregory IX., in a letter addressed to several
German bishops in 1234, describes the initiation of sorcerers as follows :
The novices, on being introduced into the assembly, " see a toad of
enormous size. . . . Some kiss its mouth, others its rear." Next,
" a black cat is presented . . . The novice kisses the rear auatomy of
the cat, after which he salutes in a similar manner those who preside
at the feast, and others worthy of the honor." (" Med. in Middle
Ages," Minor, p. 41.) Again, "At witches' reunions, the possessed
kissed the devil's rear, kissing it goat fashion, in a butting attitude."
(Idem, p. 50.) "Le baiser d'hommage est doune au derriere du
Diable parce qu'il n'a ete permis a Moise, selon l'Exode, de voir que la
derriere de Dieu." — (Melusine, Paris, July-August, 1890, p. 90, art.
"La Fascination," by J. Tuchniann.)
The devil hates nothing more than human ordure. (On this point,
see Luther's Table Talk.) The devil cannot be more completely frus-
trated than by placing upon some of his works human ordure, or hang-
ing it in the smoke of the chimney. The Laplanders were reputed to
be able to detain a ship in full sail ; yet when such a vessel had been
besmeared along its seams in the interior with the ordure of virgins,
then the efforts of the witches were of no avail. (Paullini, p. 260.)
" A certain man bewitched a boy, nine years old, by placing the boy's
ordure in a hog's bladder and hanging the ' sausage ' in the chimney.
(Idem, p. 261.) But some believed that by this smoking of ordure
the evil often became worse ; that the diseased person gradually dried
up until at last he died, as he experienced in the case of his own
father-in-law. . . . Farmers' wives, to make the butter come in spite
of the witches, poured fresh cow's milk upon human ordure, or down
into the privy, and the witches were thereupon rendered powerless." —
(Idem, p. 263. See also citation from Schurig, " Chylologia.")
The Magi also taught to drink the ashes of a pig's pizzle in sweet
wine, and so to make water into a dog's kennel, adding the words,
" Lest he, like a hound, should make urine in his own bed." If a man,
in the morning, made water a little on his own foot, it would be a pre-
servative against mala medicamenta, doses meant to do him harm." —
("Saxon Leechdoms," lib. i. p. 12, quoting Pliny. See citations al-
ready made from that author.)
Beckherius "(Med. Microcosmus, p. 114) tells the story of the Lap-
land witches being able to hold a ship in its course, except when the
WITCHCRAFT. 335
inner seams of the vessel had been calked with the ordure of a virgin ;
see extract already entered.
Again, Beckherius quotes Josephus as narrating that a certain lake,
near Jericho, ejected asphalt which adhered so tenaciously to a ship
that it was in danger of wreck, had not the asphalt been loosened by
an application of menstrual blood and human urine. — (Idem, p. 43,
quoting Josephus, " De Bello Judaico,'' lib. iv. c. 47.)
Beckherius, " Med. Microcosmus," p. 43, cites Josephus in regard to
a certain plant to which magical properties were ascribed, but only to
be brought out by watering it with menstrual blood and the urine of a
woman. — (Josephus, " De Bell. Jud." lib. vii. c. 23, p. 14C.)
Dittmar Bleekens, speaking of the " Islanders " (Icelanders), says :
,: And truly, it is a wonder that Satan so sporteth with them, for hee
hath shewed them a remedie in staying of their ships, to wit, the ex-
crements of a maide being a Virgin ; if they anoynt the Prow and cer-
taine plancks of the ship hee hath taught them that the spirit is put
to flight and driven away with this stinke." — (In Purchas, vol. i. p.
646.)
Josephus says (his remarks have already been given in quotation,
but are repeated to show exactly what he did say) : The bitumen of
Lake Asphaltites "is so tenacious as to make the ship hang upon the
clods till they set it loose with blood and with urine, to which alone it
yields." — (" V\'ars of the Jews," Eug. trans., Xew Tork, 1821, book 4,
c. 7.)
The people of the Island of Mota, or Banks Island, "have a kind of
individual totem, called tamaniu. It is some object, generally an
animal, as a lizard or snake, but sometimes a stone, with which the
person imagines that his life is bound up ; if it dies or is broken or
lost, he will die. Fancy dictates the choice of a tamaniu ; or it may
be found by drinking an infusion of " certain kinds of herbs and heap-
ing together the dregs. Whatever living thing is first seen in or upon
the heap is the tamaniu. It is watched, but not fed or worshipped."
— (Frazer, " Toteraism," Edinburgh, 1887, p. 56.)
Compare the preceding paragraph with the practice, elsewhere noted,
of determining whether or not a woman is pregnant by pouring some
of her urine upon bran and allowing it to ferment and then watching
the appearance of animal life. Also, the method of determining whether
or not a man was stricken with leprosy.
To determine whether a woman be pregnant of a boy or a girl,
make two small holes in the ground ; in one, put wheat ; in the other,
25
386 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
bailey ; let her urinate on both ; if the wheat sprout first, she will
have a boy ; if the barley, a girl. To determine whether a man had
been attacked by leprosy (elephantiasis), the ashes of burnt lead
(plumbi usti ciueres) were thrown into his urine ; if thev fell to the
bottom, he was well ; if they floated on top, he was in danger.
To tell whether a man had been bewitched, " Coque in olla nova, ad
iguem, urinam hominis quae si ebullierit, liber erit a veueficio." — (Beck-
herius, " Med. ilicrocosmus," pp. 61, 62.)
To determine whether a sick man was to die during the current
mouth, some of his urine was shaken up in a glass vessel until it
foamed ; then the observer took some of his own earwax (cerumen)
and placed it in this foam ; if it separated, the man was to recover ; if
not, uot. — (Idem, p. 62.)
" It is said that King Louis Philippe before mounting on horseback
never failed to urinate against the left hind leg of his horse, according
to an old tradition in cavalry that such a proceeding had the effect of
strengthening the leg of the beast and rendering the animal more apt
to sustain the effort made by the rider when jumping upon the
saddle. I tell you the fact as I heard it reported by one of the king's
sons, Prince of Joinville, forty-five years ago when I was sailing iu a
frigate — ' La Belle Poule ' — under his command." — (Personal letter
from Captain Henri Jouan, French Navy.)
The people of Lake Ubidjwi, near Lake Tanganyika, are thus de-
scribed : " Both sexes of all classes carry little carved images round
their necks or tied to the upper part of their arms as a charm against
evil spirits. Thev are usually hollow, and filled with filth by the
medicine-men." — ("Across Africa," Cameron, London, 1877, vol. i.
p. 336.)
In the incantations made by the medicine-men to avert disaster from
fire and preserve his expedition, Cameron notes, among other features,
" a ball made of shreds of bark, mud, and filth." (Idem, vol. ii.
p. 118.) The term "filth," as here employed, can have but one
meaning.
"Poor Robin, in his Almanac for 1695 . . . ridicules the following
indelicate fooleries then in use, which must surely have been either of
Dutch or Flemish extraction. They who when they make water go
streaking the walls with their urine, as if they were planning some
antic figures or making some curious delineations, or shall piss in the
dust, making I know not what scattering angles and circles, or some
chink in a wall, or a little hole in the ground, to be brought in, after
WITCHCRAFT. 337
two or three admonitions, as incurable fools." (Brand, "Popular
Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 175, article "Nose and Mouth Omens.") This
was possibly a survival from some old method of divining.
Cameron, describing the dance of a medicineman in the village of
Kwinhata, near the head of the Congo, and the humble deference
shown to these Mganga by the women, says of one of the women :
" She soon went away quite happy, the chief Mganga having honored her
by spitting in her face and giving her a ball of beastliness as a charm.
This she hastened to place in safety in her hut." — (" Across Africa,"
vol. ii. p. 82.)
An article in " Table Talk," copied in the " Evening Star," Wash-
ington, D. C, of Dec. 17, 1888, entitled " Christmas under the Polar
Star," says that " in Southern Lapland, should the householder neglect
to provide an ample store of fuel for the season's needs, in popular be-
lief, the disgusted Yule-swains or Christmas goblins would so befoul
the wood-pile that there would be no gettiug at its contents."
Frommann devotes a long article to a refutation of the popular idea
of his day that from the urine or seed of a man innocently hanged for
theft, could be generated " homunculi." " Anile istud placitum, ex
urina vel semine hominis innocenter ad suspendium furti crimine
damnati homuuculum geuerari." — (" Tract, de Fascinat.," p. 672.)
"Butler's description in his ' Hudibras' of ' a cunning man or for-
tune-teller,' is fraught with a great deal of his usual pleasantry, —
" ' To him, with questions and with urine,
They for discovery flock, or curing.' "
— (Brand, " Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 62, article " Sorcerer.")
" There were Etruscan wizards who made rain or discovered springs
of water, it is not certain which. They were thought to bring the
rain or water out of their bellies." — ("The Golden Bough," Frazer,
vol. i. p. 22.)
The bed-chamber of Munza, King of the Mombottoes, was " painted
with many geometrical designs . . . the white from dog's dung (album
Grcecum)." — (" Heart of Africa," Schweinfurth, London, 187S, vol. ii.
p. 36.)
It is quite safe to assert that these " geometrical designs " were
"magical. "
" Witches are supposed to acquire influence over any one by be-
coming possessed of anything belonging to the intended victim, —
such as a hair, a piece of wearing apparel, or a pin. The influence
o'S8 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
acquired by the witch is greater if such an article be voluntarily or
unconsciously handed to her by the person asked for it. ... A
witch can be disabled by securing a hair of her head, wrapping it in a
piece of paper, and placing it against a tree as a target into which a
silver bullet is to be fired from a gun. . . . When the patient reaches
the age of adolescence, the alleged relief (from incontinence of urine)
is obtaiued by urinating into a newly-made grave ; the corpse must be
of the opposite sex to that of the experimenter." — (" Folk-Lore of the
Pennsylvania Germans," Hoffman, in " Journal of American Folk-
Lore," January-March, 1889, pp. 28-32.)
Black alludes to the same ideas. See his " Folk-Medicine," p. 16.
To frustrate the effects of witchcraft, Dr. Eosinus Lentilius recom-
mended that the patient take a quantity of his own ordure, the size
of a filbert, and drink it in oil. (See " Ephem. Medic," Leipsig, 1694,
p. 170.) According to Paullini, the antidotes were to take human
ordure both internally and externally, and human urine externally.
Schurig, for the same purpose, recommended the human urine and
ordure, but both to be taken internally, mixed with hyoscyamus.
— (" Chylologia," pp. 765, 766.)
Iu France witches were transformed into animals, and vice versa,
"by washing their hands in a certain water which they kept in a pot."
Reference is also made to " a basin of anything but holy water with
which the initiated were sprinkled." — (" Sorcery and Magic," Thomas
Wright, London, 1851, vol. i. pp. 310, 311, 328, 329.)
Reginald Scot tells the story of " a mass-priest " who was tormented
by an incubus ; after all other remedies had failed, he was advised by
" a cunning witch . . . that the next morning, about the dawning of
the day, I should pisse, and immediately should cover the pisse-pot, or
stop it with my right nether-stock." — (" Discoverie," p. 65.)
The Thlinkeet of the northwest coast of America believe that a
drowned man can be restored to life by cutting his skin and applying
a medicine made of certain roots infused in the urine of a child,
which has been kept for three moons. Drowned men, according to
their medicine-men, are turned into otters. — (See Franz Boas, in
"Journal of American Folk-Lore," vol. i. p. 218.)
" It was a supposed remedy against witchcraft to put some of the
bewitched person's water, with a quantity of pins, needles, and nails,
into a bottle, cork them up, and set them before the fire, in order to
confine the spirit ; but this sometimes did not prove sufficient, as it
Would often force the cork out with a loud noise, like that of a pistol,
WITCHCRAFT. 389
aud cast the contents to a considerable height." — (Brand, " Popular
Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 13, article "Sorcerers.")
Where the limbs of a man had been bewitched, he should bathe
them with his own urine ; somerecommended an addition of garlic or
assafoetida. — (Frommanu, " Tract, de Fascinat.," pp. 961, 962.)
" Jordeu, in his curious treatise, ' Of the Suffocation of the Mother,'"
1603, p. 24, says: 'Another policie Marcellus Donatus tells us of,
which a physitian used toward the Couutesse of Mantua, who, being in
that disease which we call melancholia hypochondriaea, did verily be-
lieve that she was bewitched, and was cured by conveying of nayles,
needles, feathers, and such like things, into her close-stool when she took
physicke, making her believe that they came out of her bodie.'" —
(Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 13, article "Sorcerers.")
Schurig prescribed hen and dove dung for the cure of the bewitched.
— (" Chylologia," p. 817.)
Beckherius highly extolled human ordure for the same purpose. —
("Med. Microcosmus," p. 113.")
" The catamenial blood of women was looked upon as efficacious in
chasing away demons." — (Black, "Folk-Medicine," p. 154, quoting
Sinistrari.)
In Scotland, " they put a small quantity of salt into the first milk
of a cow, after calving, that is given to any person to drink. This is
done with a view to prevent skaith (harm), if it should happen that
the person is not canny." — (Brand, "Pop. Ant.," vol. iii. p. 165, art.
" Salt-Falling." Compare the foregoing with what Sir Samuel Baker
tells us about African superstitions on the same subject.)
"On line 160, Eeinerstein's and Retz's edition of Lucian's 'Dea
Syra,' 4vo, vol. iii. p. 654, you will find human dung mentioned as
a medicine or charm, and urine some lines lower." — (Personal letter
from Prof. W. Robertson Smith, dated Christ College, Cambridge,
England, August 11, 1888.)
One of the most curious features about Grimm's " Teutonic Mythol-
ogy " (Stallybrass' translation, London, 1882), is the absence of any
mention of the use of human or animal ordure or urine in any man-
ner, either medicinally or religiously, or to baffle witchcraft. He may
have issued a supplement, in which all this may have been corrected ;
but if he did not, then his work is most singularly defective.
Mr. Sylvester Baxter states that in a recent conversation with Mr.
Frank H. dishing, near Tempe, Arizona, he learned that in Mr.
Cushing's youth, people in Central and "Western New York were stdl
390 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
using charms against witchcraft, and that Mr. Gushing was personally
acquainted with a family which had prepared a decoction, one of
whose ingredients was human urine ; this as a preventive of witchcraft.
The locality referred to was about eighteen miles from Kochester, N. Y.
" Spitting into recently voided urine prevents one from getting
'warrle'ou his eyes." (Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge, Mass.)
This remedy goes back to Pliny.
"To unbewitch the bewitched, you must spit in the pot where you
have made water." — (Brand, "Pop. Ant.," vol. iii. p. 2G3, art.
"Saliva," quoting from Reginald Scot's " Discoverie.")
" Several fetid and stinking matters, such as old urine, are excellent
means for keeping away all kinds of evil-intentioned spirits and
ghosts." — (Rink, " Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo," Edinburgh,
1875, pp. 50, 452.)
" The Manxmen still place a vessel full of water outside their doors
at night, to enable the fairies (who, they say, were the first inhab-
itants of their island,) to wash themselves, and prevent them from
doing harm." — (Brand, " Pop. Ant." vol. ii. p. 494, art. " Fairy
Mythology.")
It is certainly singular to find here a trace of the custom noted as
existing among the Laplanders and the people of Siberia, who placed
tubs of urine for the same purpose, uriue being used in ordinary
ablutions.
In England, there was a superstition that the woman who made
water upon uettles would be " peevish for a whole day." — (Brand,
"Pop. Ant.," vol. iii. p. 359, art. "Divination by Flowers.")
Fosbroke (" Encyclopaedia of Antiquities," vol. ii.) says that this
proverb is ancient. " Nettles were in ancient times regarded as an
aphrodisiac."
Schurig (" Chylologia," p. 795) repeats the story to the effect that
the Laplanders calked the inner seams of their ships with the ordure
of virgins to increase their speed. The Laplanders, when any of their
reindeer die of disease, abandon their camp, being careful "to burn
all the excrement of the animal before they depart." — (Leem's
" Account of Danish Lapland," in Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 484. See pre-
vious citations from Sauer in regard to the Yakuts of Siberia.)
The story was current in California, about twenty years since, that
the immigrants to that state from Missouri and Arkansas, in the gold-
mining days, had the custom of depositing their evacuations, before
starting on the march of the day, in the camp-fires of the preceding
WITCHCRAFT. 391
night. Nothing was learned of the meaning, if any, of the custom.
Nursing women sprinkled a few drops of their milk on the burning
coals in the fireplace, to ensure au abundant flow. — (Etmuller,
vol. i. p. 68.)
The author has been fortunate in obtaining a copy of the address of
Mr. James Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C,
upon the "Medical Mythology of Ireland."
This interesting and extremely valuable contribution, which can be
found in the " Transactions of the American Philosophical Society for
1887," leaves no uncertainty in regard to the mystic powers ascribed
by the Celtic peasantry to both urine and ordure. Urine and chicken-
dung are shown to be potent in frustrating the mischief of fairies ;
"fire, iron, and dung" are spoken of as the "three great safeguards
against the influence of fairies and the infernal spirits." Dung is
carried about the person, as part of the contents of amulets ; and chil-
dren suffering from convulsions are, as a last resort, bathed from head
to foot in urine, to rescue them from the clutches of their fairy
persecutors. See also p. 377, in regard to the " dwarves," who, in
England, seem to be the same as fairies.
Du Chaillu, in his "Land of the Midnight Sun," makes no reference
to the use, in any manner, by the inhabitants of that region, of excre-
mentitious materials for any purposes. His stay was of such an ex-
tremely short duration, that his observations cannot be compared with
those made by Leems and others, from whom information has already
been extracted.
A curious survival, in France, of the Parsi custom of the " Nirang"
is demonstrated in the May number of "Melusine," Paris, 1888,
entitled " Le Nirang des Parsis, en Basse Bretagne."
" J'ai passe mon enfance, jusqu'a l'age de quatorze ans, dans tin
vieux manoir breton, du nom de Keramborgne, dans la commune de
Plouarte, arrondisserneiit de Lannion. Le manoir paternel etait bien
counu des malheureux et des mendiants errants . . . qui venaient
demander le vivre et le couvert pour la nuit . . . Parmi les pauvres
errants qui etaient les botes les plus assidus de Keramborgne . . .
se trouvait une vieille femme nommee Gillette Kerlohiou, qui con-
naissait toutes les nouvelles du pays . . . et, de plus, avait la reputa-
tion d'etre quelque pen sorciere, et de guerir certaines maladies par
des oraisons et des herbes dont elle seule avait le secret. . . . Uu
matin que Gillette avait passe la nuit a l'etable . . . elle marmottait
des prieres. . . . Une vache s'etant mise a uriuer, la vieille mendiante
392 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
se precipita vers elle, recut de Purine dans le creux de sa main et s'en
frotta la figure a plusieurs reprises. . . . Ce que voyaut le vacher, il la
traita de salope et de vieille folle. Mais Gillette lui dit, sans s'emou-
voir : ' Rien n'est meilleur, moa fils, que de se laver la figure, le matin,
en se levant, avec de Purine de la vache, et meme avec sa propre urine
si Pon ne pent se procurer de celle de vache. Quand vous avez fait
cette ablution, le matin, vous etes, pour toute la journee, a Pabri des
embuches et des mechancetes du diable, car vous devenez invisible
pour lui.' "
The writer of the above, M. F.-M. Luzel, learned from the other
peasants and beggars standing about that the belief expressed by the
old woman was fully concurred in by her comrades.
" Nos paysannes de France se lavaient les mains dans leur urine ou
dans celle de leurs maris, ou de leurs enfants, pour dctouruer les male-
fices ou en empecher Peffet." — (Reclus, " Les Primitifs," p. 98.)
Father Le Jeune must have been on the track of something corre-
sponding to an ur-orgy among the Hurous when he learned that the
devil imposed upon the sick, in dreams, the duty of wallowing in or-
dure if they hoped for restoration to health.1
This penitential wallowing was retained by nations of a high order
of advancement, the ordure of primitive times being generally super-
seded by clay and other less filthy matter.
" Let it suffice to display the points where Greek found itself in har-
mony with Australian and American and African practice. ... 3. The
habit of daubing persons about to be initiated with clay, ... or any-
thing else that is sordid, and of washing this off, apparently by way of
showing that old guilt is removed, and a new life entered upon." —
("Myth, Ritual, and Religion," Andrew Lang, Loudon, 1887, vol. ii.
p. 282.)
" Plutarch, in his essay on superstition, represents the guilty man
who would be purified actually i-olling in clay." — (Idem, p. 28G.)
The following is described as the Abyssinian method of exorcising a
woman : The exorcist " lays an amulet on the patient's heaving bosom,
makes her smell of some vile compound, and the moment her madness
is somewhat abated begins a dialogue with the Eouda (demon), who
answers in a woman's voice. The devil is invited to come out in the
name of all the saints ; but a threat to treat him with some red-hot
1 Leur faisant voir en songe, qu ils ne seauroient guerir qu'en se veautant dans
toutes sortes d' ordures. — (Pere Le Jeune, "Jesuit Relations,' 1636, published by
Canadian Government, Quebec, 1858. )
■WITCHCRAFT. 393
coals is usually more potent, and after he has promised to obey, he
seeks to delay his exit by asking fur something to eat. Filth and dirt
are mixed and hidden under a bush, when the woman crawls to the
sickening repast and gulps it down with avidity." — (From an article
entitled " Abyssinian Women," in the " Evening Star," Washington,
D.C., October 17, 1885.)
" A Pretty Charme or Conclusion for one Possessed. . . . The pos-
sessed body must go upon his or her knees to church, . . . and so
must creep without going out of the way, being the common highway,
in that sort how foul and dirty soever the same may be, or whatsoever
lie in the way, not shunning anything whatsoever, untill he come to
the church, where he must heare masse devoutly." — (Scot, " Dis-
coverie," p. 178.)
By the Irish peasantry urine was sprinkled upon sick children.1
American boys urinate upon their legs to prevent cramp while
swimming.
Iu Stirling, Scotland, " a certain quantity of cow-dung is forced into
the mouth of a calf immediately after it is calved, or at least before it
has received any meat ; owing to this, the vulgar believe that witches
and fairies can have no power ever after to injure the calf." — (Brand,
" Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 257, article " Rural Charms.")
Frommaun gives a preparation of twenty-five ingredients for freeing
infants from witchcraft (fasciuatio) ; but neither human nor animal
egestffi are mentioned. — (" Tract, de Fascinat," p. 449, 450.)
Cox, in his history of Ireland, gives a description of the trial of
Lady Alice Kettle, of Ossory, charged with being a witch, and with
sacrificing to a familiar spirit at night, at cross-roads, nine red cocks
and nine peacock's eyes, and with sweeping the streets of Kilkenny,
"raking all the filth towards the doors of her son, William Outlaw,
murmuring and muttering secretly with herself these words : —
" ' To the House of William, my son,
Hie all the Wealth of Kilkenny town.' "
— ("History of Ireland," London, 1639, vol. i. p. 102. The date of
the above was about 1325.)
This story is quoted by Vallencey, " Collect, de Rebus Hibernicis,"
1 Brand quotes Camden as relating of the Irish that, " if a child is at any time
out of order, they sprinkle it with the stalest urine they can get." — (Brand,
"Popular Antiquities," article "Christening Customs,' London, 1849, vol. ii.
p. 86.)
394 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Dublin, 177-t, vol. ii. p. 369, and by Henry C. Lea, "History of the
Inquisition," New York, 1888, vol. iii. p. 457 ; it is originally to be
found in Camden.
In the Island of Guernsey, within the present generation, "John
Lane, of Anneville, Lane Parish," has been tried on the charge of
" having practised necromancy," and " induced many persons in the
country parishes to believe that they were bewitched," and that he
could drive away the devil and other bad spirits " by boiling herbs to
produce a certaiu perfume not at all grateful to the olfactory nerves of
demons, . . . and the sprinkling of celestial water." — (Brand, " Popu-
lar Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 66, article " Sorcerers.")
In the valuable compilation of superstitious practices interdicted by
Roman Catholic councils Thiers includes the persons who bathe their
hands with urine in the morning to avert witchcraft or nullify its
effect. He says, too, that Saint Lucy was reputed to be a witch, for
which reason the Roman Judge, Paschasius, at her trial sprinkled her
with urine.1
See the extract just quoted from " Melusine."
The Romans had a feast to the mother of all the gods, Berecinthia,
in which the matrons took their idol and sprinkled it with their urine.3
Berecinthia was one of the names under which Cybele or Rhea, the
primal earth goddess, was worshipped by the Romans and by many
nations in the East. Her priests, the Galli, emasculated themselves
in orgies whose frenzy was of the same general type as the Omophagi
of the Greeks, previously described.
The emasculation of the priests of Cybele was performed with a
piece of Samian pottery. — (See footnote to Rev. Lewis Evans' transla-
tion of the Satires of Lucilius, lib. vii., edition of New York, 1860.)
The priests of Cybele were by some supposed to have received the
name of Galli from the River Gallus, " near which these priests in-
flicted upon themselves the punishment we are speaking of. . . . The
1 Ceux qui lavent leurs mains le matin avec de l'uvine pour detourner les male-
fices ou pour en empeeher l'effet. C'est pour cela que le juge Paschase fit arroser
■1'urine Sainte Luce, parce qu'il s'imaginoit qu'elle etoit sorciere (Thiers,
"Traite des Superstitions," Paris, 1741, vol. i. cap. 5, p. 471.)
This statement is repeated verbatim by Picart ("Coutumes et Ceremonies," etc.,
Amsterdam, 1729, p. 35), and he adds that the judge believed that he would by this
precaution disable her from evading the torments in store for her. John of Sauls-
bury, bishop of Chartres, with good reason cast ridicule upon this charm.
2 La rociaba con sus orinas. — (Torquemada, "Monarchia Indiana," lib. x.
cap. 23.)
"WITCHCRAFT. 395
effect of the water of that river was to throw them into fits of enthusi-
asm, — ' qui bibit, inde furit,' as Ovid has it." — (Abbe Banier, " My-
thology," Euglish translation, Loudon, 1740, vol. ii. p. 563.)
" Here they set down their litters at night and bedew the very
image of the goddess with copious irrigations, while the chaste moon
witnesses their abominations." — (Juvenal, Sixth Satire, describing the
rites of Bona Dea, translated by Eev. Lewis Evans, M.A., Wadhama
College, Oxford, New York, 18G0.)
Father Baudiu speaks of the secret society called the " Ogbuni : "
" From what I have been able to learu, this society is simply an insti-
tution similar to the secret societies of the pagan people of ancient
times, where the members were initiated into the infamous mysteries
of the great goddess." (Negroes of Guinea.) — ("Fetichism and
Fetich-worshippers," Baudin, New York, 1885, p. 64.)
The Eskimo living near Point Barrow have a yearly ceremony for
driving out an evil spirit which they call Tuna. Among the cere-
monies incident to the occasion is this : One of the performers
" brought a vessel of urine and flung it on the fire." — (" The Golden
Bough," Frazer, vol. ii. p. 164, quoting " Report of the International
Polar Expedition to Point Barrow," Washington, 1885, p. 42.)
It is strange to encounter in races so diverse apparently as the
Greeks and the Hottentots the same rites of emasculation and uriue
sprinkling.
The sect of the " Skoptsi" or the " Eunuchs," in Russia, "base their
peculiar tenets on Christ's saying, ' There are some eunuchs which
were born so from their mother's womb, and there are some eunuchs
which were made eunuchs of men, and there be eunuchs which have
made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that
is able to receive it let him receive it' (Matt. xix. 12)." — (Heard,
" Russian Creed and Russian Dissent," p. 265.)
" This heresy, which is the most modern of all, probably owes its
origin to influences from the East slowly filtering through the lower
ranks of the population." — (Idem, p. 267.)
Reginald Scot tells the story of a quack who preyed upon the fears
of patients suffering from tympanitis, telling them they had vipers in
their bellies, which vipers he would try to smuggle into the patient's
" ordure or excrement, after his purgations." — (" Discoverie,"
p. 198.)
Schurig relates that the countrywomen in Germany, if after milking
their cows for a long time they were unable to bring the proper quantity
396 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
of butter, suspected that they were under the spell of a witch ; to un-
do this spell it was only necessary to mix some fresh milk with human
ordure and throw the mixture down the privy ; or humau ordure was
applied to the teats of the cows, much as Sir Samuel Baker has shown
the Africans will do in our day. " Quippe qua?, siquando in confi-
cicndo butyro, per tempus frustra laborarunt, suspicioue veneficii
cujusdam seduct* lac vaccinum recens emulsum stercori humano
commixtum cloaca; simul infundunt, atque sic illico a Yeueficio liberan-
tur. ... Si ferrum iguitum una stercore humano lacte vaccino con-
sperso inseras, venefica? pustulus iuducet. . . . Contra magicam lactis
vaccarum ablationem, ipsarum ubera stercore humano aliquamdiu
iuungi solent." And he ends his paragraph by quoting the dictum
of Johannis Michaelis, "Sine omui fascinatione et superstitioue proprio
stercore efficere possit." — (Schurig, " Chylologia," pp. 7S8, 789, par.
G2.)
' Compare with the information derived from Paullini.
The above practice seems to have been transplanted to Pennsylvania,
with its more objectionable features omitted.
" The housewife sometimes finds difficulty in butter-making, the
spell being believed to be the work of a witch. . . . The remedy was
to plunge a red-hot poker into the contents of the churn, when the
spell was broken, and the butter immediately began to form." —
(" Folk-Lore of the Penu'a Germans." — (Hoffman, in "Jour, of Arner.
Folk-Lore," 1889.)
From all this it would appear plausible to assume that the " ripen-
ing of cheese " in human urine was originally induced by a desire to
avert the evils of witchcraft. Refer also to the notes from Sir Samuel
Baker.
In " South Mountain Magic," Mrs. M. V. Dahlgren, Boston, Mass.
1882, may be found references to the bewitching of milk and cream,
and to the remedy employed of putting in hot stones or " a wedge of
hot iron" (pp. 165-167). In this partial "survival," we see the disap-
pearance of the more objectionable features of the practices of the old
country. Mrs. Dahlgren's book treats of the superstitions of the
Pennsylvania Germans living close to the Maryland border.
"The urine casters, a set of quacks almost within our own recollec-
tion, had a peculiar jargon, which it is not necessary to attend to." —
(" Medical Dictionary," Bartholomew Parr, M. D., Philadelphia, Penn'a,
1819, art. " Urine.")
When cattle had been killed by witchcraft, Reginald Scot gave a long
WITCHCRAFT. 397
formula for detecting the culprit; among other things, the farmer was
directed to "traile the bowels of the beast unto your house. . . . into
the kitchen, and there make a fire, and set oner the same a grediron,
and thereupon lay the inwards or bowels, and as they wax hot, so shall
the witches' entrails be molested with extreme heat and pain." —
("Discoverie," p. 198. It should be observed that there are no direc-
tions about "cleaning" the bowels of the animal.)
Among the modes of detecting witches in England, were " by shav-
ing off every hair of the witch's body. They were also detected by put-
ting hair, parings of the nails, and urine of any person bewitched into
a stone bottle, and hanging it up in the chimney." — (Cotta, in his
"Short Discovery of the Unobserved Dangers," p. 54) speaks of "the
burning of the dung or urine of such as are bewitched." In "A
Pleasant Grove of New Fancies," by H. K. 8vo, London, 1857, p. 7C,
we have : —
" A charm to bring in the witch,
To house the hag you must do this :
Commix with meal, a little p —
Of him bewitched ; then forthwith make
A little wafer or a cake ;
And this rarely baked, will bring
The old hag in ; no surer thing."
Among other methods given for baffling witches and making their
evil deeds turn upon themselves, we find : " taking some of the thatch
from over the door ; or a tyle, if the house be tyled . . . sprinkle it
over with the patient's water. . . . Put salt into the patient's water
and dash it upon the red hot tyle." Another : heat a horse-shoe red hot
and "quench him in the patient's urine. . . . Having the patient's
urine, set it over the fire. . . . Put into it three horse-nails and a
little salt. ... Or, heat a horse-shoe red hot" and "quench him sev-
eral times in the urine." Still another : " stop the urine of the patient
close up in a bottle, and put into it three nails, pins, or needles, with a
little white salt, keeping the urine always warm." — (Rrand, "Pop.
Ant." vol. iii. pp. 170 et seq. art. "Sorcery and Witchcraft.")
" To ascertain if one be bewitched, take his urine and boil it in a
new, unused pot ; if it foam up, he is not bewitched ; if not, it is uncer-
tain. Or, take clean ashes, put them in a new pot, let the patient
urinate thereon. Tie up the pot, and let it stand in the sun ; then
break the ashes apart ; if the person be bewitched, hairs will be found
therein." — (Paullini, pp. 260, 2G1.)
398 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Xeither can I belieue (I speak it with reuerence unto graue judg-
ments) that . . . the burning of the dung or vrine of such as are be-
witched, or floating bodies aboue the water, or the like, are any trial of
a witch." — ("A Short Discouerie of the Unobserued Dangers of
Seuerall sorts of Ignorant and Vnconsiderate Practisers of Physicke
in England," John Cotta, London, 1612, p. 54.)
Beckherius inclined to believe that human teeth, taken medicinally,
would break down witchcraft : " Contra maleficia et veneficia prodesse
scribit." - — ("Med. Microcosmus," p. 265.)
On New Year's Day they (the Highlanders) bum juniper before
their cattle, and on the first Monday in every quarter, sprinkle them
with urine." — (" Pennant's Tour in Scotland," in Pinkerton, vol. iii.
p. 90.)
" Les rustres slaves secouaient sur leur betail des herbes de la Saint
Jean, bouillies dans de l'urine pour le preserver des mauvais sortes." —
("Les Primitifs," Eeclus, p. 98.)
We should not forget that from the earliest recorded times the
cedar and juniper have been devoted to sacred offices. " The god of
the cedar, to which tree was ascribed a peculiar power to avert fatal
influences and sorcery." (This, among the Accadians, the earliest known
inhabitants of Mesopotamia.) — See " Chaldean Magic," Leuormant, p.
178.)
From a very early date, urine seems to have been symbolized or
superseded by holy water, salt and water, "celestial water," "fore-
spoken water," juniper water, or wine or water, according to circum-
stances. "For lung disorders in cattle. . . . take fennel and hassock,
etc. . . . make five crosses of hassuck-grass, set them on four sides of
the cattle, and one iD the middle ; sing about the cattle Benedicam,
etc. . . . Sprinkle holy water upon them, burn about them incense."
— ("Saxon Leechdoms," vol. iii. p. 57; the same remedy for diseased
sheep, idem, p. 57.)
" If a horse or other beast be shot (elf-shot) take seed of dock and
Scotch wax, let a mass priest sing twelve masses over them, and put
holy water on the horse." — (Idem, vol. iii. p. 47 ; again, vol. iii. p.
157.)
" When a contagious disease enters among cattle, the fire is extin-
guished in some villages round ; then they force fire with a wheel, or
by rubbing a piece of dry wood upon another, and therewith burn
juniper in the stalls of the cattle that the smoke may purify the air
about them ; they likewise boil juniper in water which they sprinkle
WITCHCRAFT. 399
upon the cattle." — (Brand, "Pop. Ant." vol. iii. p. 286, art. "Physi-
cal Charms," quoting Shaw's "History of the Province of Moray in
Scotland." Brand thinks that " this is, no doubt, a Druid custom.")
Scot, in his "Discoverie " (p. 157), says : " Men are preserved from
witchcraft by sprinkling of holy water," etc. (Idem, vol. i. p. 19, art.
" Sorcery.-') " For the devils are observed to have delicate nostrils,
abominating and flying some kind of stinks; wituess the flight of the
evil spirit into the remote parts of Egypt, driven by the smell of the
fish's liver, burnt by Tobit." Conjurors are reported as always care-
ful to "first exorcise the wine and water which they sprinkle on their
circle." — (Idem, vol. iii. pp. 55, 57, art. "Sorcery.")
The foul condition of the atmospbere of sleeping-apartments was
supposed to be rectified by the burning of juniper, sometimes of rose-
mary. " He dotli sacrifice two pence in juniper to her every morning."
(" Every Man out of his Humor," Ben Jonson) " Then put fresh water
into both the bough-pots, and burn a little juniper in the hall chimney,
Like a beast, as I was, I pissed out the fire last night." (" Mayor
of Tumborough," Beaumont and Fletcher.) " Burn a little juniper in
my murrin ; the maid made it in her chamber-pot." — (" Cupid's Rev."
Beaumont and Fletcher, iv. 3 ; contributed by Dr. Fletcher.)
The diuretic effects of juniper berries are well known ; we may con-
jecture that the " water of juniper" superseded another fluid induced
by the use of the berries.
The " fore-spoken water" with which sick cattle are sprinkled in the
Orkneys, is still to be noted in places in the Highlands. — (See Brand,
"Pop. Ant." vol. iii. p. 274, art. "Physical Charms.")
The following spell is from Herrick's " Hesperides," p. 304 : —
" Holy water come and bring ;
Cast in salt for seasoning ;
Set the brush for sprinkling.''
(Idem, vol. iii. p. 58, art. " Sorcerer.")
"The charmer muttered some words over water, in imitation of
Catholic priests consecrating holy water." — ("Phil, of Magic," Sal-
verte, p. 52. Shetland Islands.)
According to Dalyell, this "fore-spoken water" was made of water,
salt, and the saliva of the conjurer. — (See "Superstitions of Scot-
land," p. 98.)
" For information of a cherished relative and his fate, in the other
400 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
world, they apply to the fetich-priest, who takes a little child and
bathes his face with lustral-water. " — (" Fetichism," Baudin, p. 65.)
The "lustral water" of the foregoing paragraph, is made of "snails
and vegetable butter." — (Idem, p. 88.)
Reginald Scot gives a "cure" for one "possessed," one point of
which is that the victim " must mingle holy water with his meate and
his drink, and holy salt also must be a portion of the mixture."
(" Discoverie," p. 178.) Witches were required to drink holy water at
their trials. — (Idem, p. 21.)
Salt was called "divine" by the ancients. — (See "Morals," Plu-
tarch, Goodwin's English edit., Boston, 1870, vol. iii. p. 338.)
" Both Greeks aud Romans mixed salt with their sacrificial cakes ;
in their lustrations, also, thej' made use of salt and water, which gave
rise, in after times, to the superstition of holy water." — (Brand
"Pop. Ant." vol. iii. p. 161, art. "Salt Falling.")
The Scottish use of salt and water, as already noted, is described by
Black ("Folk Medicine," p. 23); and by Napier (" Folk-Lore, " pp.
36, 37.)
Salt is put in the cradle of a new-born babe in Holland. — ("Times,"
New York, Nov. 10, 1889.) "No one will go out on any material
affairs without putting some salt in their pockets ; much less remove
from one house to another, marry, put out a child, or take one to
nurse, without salt being interchanged." (Dalyell, " Superst. of
Scotland," p. 96.) Salt is not used by the Eastern limit : " Le sel
leur repugne, peut-etre parceque l'atmosphere et les poissons crus en
sont deja satureV' — ("Les Primitifs," Reclus, p. 33.)
Having shown that witches were exorcised in France, England, Scot-
land, etc., by sprinkling with urine, we have reason to claim the follow-
ing treatment to be at least cousin-german to our subject. In the
west of Scotland, a peasant suffering from a mysterious and obstinate
disease, was reputed to be under the influence of the "evil eye."
The following remedy was then resorted to : " An old sixpence is bor-
rowed from some neighbor, without telling the object to which it is to
be applied ; as much salt as can be lifted upon the sixpence is put into
a tablespoonful of water and melted : the sixpence is then put into the
solution, and the soles of the feet and palms of the hands of the patient
are moistened three times with the salt water ; it is then tasted three
times, and the patient ' scored aboun the breath,' that is, by the
operator dipping the fore-finger into the salt water and drawing it
along the brow. When this is done, the contents of the spoon are
WITCHCRAFT. 40 1
thrown behind and right over the fire, the throwers at the same time
sayiug: 'Lord preserve us from all scathe.'" — (Brand, "Pop. Ant."
vol. iii. p. 47, art. "Fascination of Witches.")
Wright calls attention to the fact that at the meetings of witches,
" at times, every article of luxury was placed before them, and they
feasted in the most sumptuous manner. Often, however, the meats
served on the table were nothing but toads and rats, and other articles
of a revolting nature. In general they had no salt, and but seldom
bread." After these feasts came " wild and uproarious dancing and
revelry. . . . Their backs, instead of their faces, were turned inwards.
... It may be observed, as a curious circumstance, that the modern
waltz is first traced among the meetings of the witches and their imps.
. . . The songs were generally obscene or vulgar, or ridiculous." —
("Sorcery and Magic," Thomas Wright, London, 1851, pp. 310, 311,
328, 329.)
Reginald Scot also states that the waltz was derived from the dance
of the witches. — (See " Discoverie," p. 36.)
The preseuts which the devil gave to witches all turned into filth
the nest morning. — (See Grimm, " Teut. Mythol.," vol. iii. p. 1070.)
For a specimen of the filthy in literature, read the dream of Zador
of Vera Cruz, who wished to sell his soul to the devil, in " El Bachiller
de Salamanca," Le Sage, Paris, 1847, part iv. cap. 2, p. 129.
The best explanation of the above story — which represents Zador as
making a compact with his satanic majesty whereby in exchange for
Zador's soul the devil discloses a gold mine in a graveyard, from which
the poor dupe extracts enough for his present needs, and then marks
the locality by an ingenious method, only to be awakened by his angry
wife to the mortifying consciousness that he has defiled his own bed
— is that it reflects the current opinion of the Spaniards of Le Sage's
era in regard to the transmutability of the gifts received from the evil
one. See the story of the god " Kutka."
" Popular tales, which most frequently arise from traditions . . .
are remnants of olden times, and illustrate them. . . . When a vicious
or evil spirit is mentioned in any tale or popular tradition, I consider
it always implies a reminiscence of some being who formerly, during
the supremacy of a religion now rejected, was worshipped as a god.
He is considered to benefit his worshippers, but to molest those who
hold another belief. Maukiud, when in a rude state, often attribute
their own intolerance to their gods. Thus mankind creates his own
god after his own image." — (Seven Xillson, " The Primitive Inhabi-
26
402 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
tants of Scandinavia," edited by Sir John Lubbock, London, 18G8,
Preface, liii.)
Speculation would lead to no profitable result were we to endeavor
by its aid — the only means now left us — to fathom the obscurity
suiTounding the rites and dances, and especially the foods of those
witches' gatherings.
Doctor Dupuoy, in " Le Moyen Age Medical," to which special at-
tention is due, advances an opinion which seems to cover much of the
ground in a logical manner. This in one word, amounts to the belief
that the witches' gatherings of Europe were not figments of the imagi-
nation, but really existed, and were the conventions of votaries of the
cults stamped out of existence, and only traceable in the distorted and
outlandish features which would most naturally commend themselves
to an ignorant peasautry. " Among these sorcerers there were old pau-
derers, who knew from personal experience all practices of debauchery,
and who gave the name of ' vigils ' to the saturnalia indulged in among
villagers on certain nights, — gatherings composed of bawds and pimps,
to which were invited numerous novices in libidinousness. These sor-
cerers and witches also knew the remedies that young girls must take
when they wish to destroy the physiological results of their own im-
prudence, and what old men needed to restore their virility. They
knew the medicinal qualities of plants, especially those that stupefied."
— (Translated by T. C. Minor, M.D., under title of " Medicine in the
Middle Ages," p. 40.)
The initiates in witchcraft may have been compelled to adopt loath-
some foods as a test of the sincerity of their purposes, or they may
have taken them to induce an intoxication such as that of the Zunis of
New Mexico and the wild tribes of Siberia. There is still another
hypothesis to be considered before relinquishing this topic. The best
food, we know, was always offered to the deities of the ruling sect, and the
use of any of the appurtenants of the rites of the ruling religion in the
ceremonial of a superseded cult was looked upon as the veriest sacrilege
and blasphemy. For example, the use of holy water at the witches'
sabbath was considered a worse crime than that of being a witch.
Therefore we may conclude that, as the votaries of the superseded
religion did not dare to employ the best, they necessarily had to fall back
upon inferior material out of which to construct their oblations; and
as they assembled generally in mountain recesses, in caves, etc., where
nothing better could be had, they offered themselves in sacrifice, —
that is, they recurred to the old practices of human sacrifice, if indeed
WITCHCRAFT. 403
they had ever abandoned them, and gave the pledges of their own
Lair, saliva, urine, and egestse.
" Pure prayer ascends to Him that High doth sit,
Down falls the filth for fiends of Hell more fit."
Such was the answer made to the father of lies by a venerable
monk, —
" A godly father sitting on a draught,
To do as need and nature hath us taught."
The devil had reproached him for saying his prayers at such a moment.
— (Haringtou, " Ajax," pp. 33, 3-t.)
Mooney relates an instance of the abduction of an Irishwoman by
fairies. She managed to impart to her husband the knowledge of the
means by which her rescue could be accomplished : " He must be ready
with some urine and some chicken-dung, which he must throw upon
her, and then seize her. . . . Soon he heard the fairies approaching,
aud when the noise came in front of him he threw the dung and urine
in the direction of the sound, and saw his wife fall from her horse."
("The Medical Mythology of Ireland," James Mooney, Amer. Phil. So-
ciety, 1887.) The Irish peasantry firmly believe in the power of the
fairies to carry off their children; to effect a restoration, "a wise
woman " is summoned, whose method is to " heat the shovel in the
fireplace, place the changeling upon it, and put it out upon the dung-
hill." (Idem.) " Fire, iron, and dung, the three great safeguards
against the influence of fairies and the infernal spirits." — (Idem.)
The peasantry of Ireland carry about the person " medicine bags "
very much like those iu use amoug the North American Indians.
Among the contents of these bags " are usually found tobacco, garlic,
salt, chicken-dung, lus-crea, and some dust from the roadside." (Idem.)
This is " carried as a protection against the fairies ; . . . also as a
protection against the evil eye ; and something of the same nature is
sewed into the clothing of the bride wheu her friends are preparing
her for the marriage ceremony." — (Idem.)
" A charm to be said each morning by a witch fasting, or at least
before she goes abroad : ' The fire bite, the fire bite ; hog's turd over
it, hog's turd over it, hog's turd over it ! The Father with thee ; the
Son with thee ; the Holy Ghost between us both to be ! ' This last
refrain three times ; then spit over one shoulder, and then over the
other, and then three times right forward." — (Scot, " Discoverie,"
p. 177.)
404 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
" Item. They hang . . . garlicke ill the roof of the house for to
keep away witches and spirits, . . . and so they do alicium likewise."
— (Idem, p. 192.)
Garlic was put in the cradle of a new-born babe in Holland. —
("Times," New York, Nov. 10, 1889.)
Garlic could not be eaten by the monks or nuns of Thibet (Bhiks-
huni) ; to eat it was considered a sin. " 140. Si une Bhikshuni mange
de Tail," etc. But in a footnote it is stated that it might be eaten
when it was the only remedy for some disease or infirmity ; but even
then the patient should not euter a dormitory, a latrine, could not ex-
pound the law, mingle with brahmins, enter a park, a market, or a
temple until he had undergone a three days' purification, been bathed
and fumigated. — (See " Pratimoksha Sutra," translated by W. W.
Rockhill, Paris, 1885, Societe Asiatique.)
TEMPLE OR SACRED PROSTITUTION. 405
XLIV.
A FEW REMARKS UPON TEMPLE OR SACRED PROSTI-
TUTION, AND UPON THE HORNS OF CUCKOLDS.
" T^HE bawds of Amsterdam believed (in 1637) that horse's dung
dropped before the house and put fresh behind the door . . .
would bring good luck to their houses." — (" Le Putanisme d Amster-
dam," p. 56, quoted in Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 18,
article " Sorcery.")
While a sacred origin cannot be claimed for prostitution in general,
all, or nearly all, temples must in the early ages of mankind have been
provided with prostitutes. The necessity for such a provision is obvi-
ous. Man's superstition and ignorance invested certain localities, or
the guardian spirits of those localities, with the power to work him
weal or woe, unless kept in good humor by oblations and sacrifices.
Temples were erected on such foundations, tended by priests, who
waxed fat and enriched themselves, because the right of asylum at-
tached to their position, although such a right did not absolutely attach
to the little communities which insensibly grew up around these
temples. The necessities of national administration and of interna-
tional or inter-tribal arbitration, would naturally attract periodically to
those temples the law-makers, the great chiefs and their followers, per-
haps to settle their disputes or arrange their treaties by personal dis-
cussion, perhaps by the decision of the arch-priest.
At such gatherings, no inconsiderable amount of barter and traffic
would spring up, and many, of a mercantile turn of mind, would realize
the advantages of a permanent residence. The sailors and merchants
from foreign parts could not always be expected to behave with pro-
priety ; they might, at times, he as anxious to "paint the town red "
as the western cowboy is whenever he is paid off. The women of the
city would be in constant danger of insult ; hence, as a wise pre-
caution, a certain class of young and attractive females were reserved
for the service of the temples, — that is, for the gratification of the
sexual passions of strangers and the enrichment of the priests.
406 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Indeed, until some such mode of detail had been devised and car-
ried into effect, and perhaps long after that, it seems to have been the
custom for all the women of the city to share in this duty ; we read
that, at the temple of Mylitta, it was incumbent upon each woman to
prostitute herself with a stranger at least once in her life, at the temple
of that goddess.
The priests would impart to the prostitutes a knowledge of charms
intended to secure good fortune ; these charms would, in course of
time, be adopted by prostitutes in general, who had no connection
with the temple at all. Similar survivals can be traced among gam-
blers. Gambling was at one time a sacred method of divination.
Those who cast omens were always on the lookout for good signs and
bad. One of the best signs was to meet a man with a hump-back.
Gamblers to-day consider themselves fortunate when they can rub the
hump of a cripple.
This sacred prostitution was by no means confined to the Babylo-
nians. The Hebrews had, attached to their temples, a class of persons
of both sexes termed " Kadeshim," to whom the opprobrious office of
public prostitution has been attributed ; and in numerous other parts
of the world the same sort of personal degradation has been reported.
The women devoted to this service wore a certain uniform. (See Du-
laure, " Des Differents Oultes," vol. ii. p. 75, speaking of the " Kade-
shoth." See also Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," New York, 1871,
articles, " Harlot " and " Sodomite.")
" The sons of Eli lay with the women that assembled at the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation." — (1 Samuel ii. 22.)
" Throughout India, and also through the densely inhabited parts
of Asia and modern Turkey, there is a class of females who dedicate
themselves to the service of the Deity whom they adore, and the
rewards accruing from their prostitution are devoted to the service of
the temple and the priests officiating therein. The temples of the
Hindus in the Dekkan possessed these establishments. They had
bands of consecrated dancing-girls, called " women of the idol," selected
in their infancy by the priests for the beauty of their persons, and
trained up with every elegant accomplishment that could render them
attractive." — (" The Masculine Cross," privately printed, 1886, p. 31.)
Re'clus has a dissertation upon this subject, which concludes in these
words : " Aussi Juvenal se permettait de demander, . . . Quel est le
temple oil les femmes ne se prostituent pasl" — (" Les Primitifs,"
p. 79.)
TEMPLE OR SACRED PROSTITUTION. 407
Lenormant speaks of " the sacred prostitution, which was imposed
ouce, at least, in a lifetime, upon all women, even those who were
free." — (" Chaldean Magic," Francois Lenormant, p. 3S6.)
"Caindu is an heathenish nation, where, in honor of their idols,
they prostitute their wives, sisters, and daughters to the lust of trav-
ellers." — (Purchas, vol. v. p. -130. Caindu seems to have been a
territory adjacent to Thibet.)
"Sometimes, at the command of a wizard, a man orders his wife to
go to an appointed place, usually a wood, and abandon herself to the
first person she meets. Yet there are women who refuse to comply
with such orders." — (Patagonia, " Voyage of Adventure and Beagle,"
vol. ii. p. 154.)
" The people of Khasrowan, a Christian province in the Libanus,
inhabited by a peculiarly prurient race, also hold high festival under
the far-famed cedars, and their women sacrifice to Venus, like the
' Kadeshah ' of the Phoenicians. This survival of old superstition is
unknown to missionary ' hand-books,' but amply deserves the study
of the anthropologist." — (Burton, " Arabian Nights," terminal essay,
vol. x. 230.)
The religious prostitution of the ancient Babylonians seems also to
survive, in a small degree, in the petty hamlets of Kesfin and Mar-
taouan, near Aleppo, in Syria. " The women carry their hospital-
ity as far as those of Babylon of old. This authorized prostitution
seems to be a remnant of the old Asiatic superstitions." — (Maltebrun,
" Universal Geography," vol. i. p. 353, lib. 28.) Dulaure cites the
case of Martuoau, and also quotes Marco Polo in evidence of the ex-
istence of the same practices in Kamul, near Tanguth. — (" Des Dif.
Cultes," vol. ii. pp. 598, 599.)
" Most eastern temples, and especially those connected with the
solar cult, had, and for the most part still have, 'Deva-Dasis' temple,
or 'God's women,' the followers of Mylitta, though generally not
seated so confessedly nor so prominently as those whom Herodotus
describes. They were doubtless the women with mirrors (Ezek.
viii. 14) who wept for Tamuz, the sun-god." ("Rivers of Life,"
Forlong, vol. i. p. 329.) The African goddess Odudua promised pro-
tection "to all those who would establish themselves in this place, and
erect to her a temple in place of the cabin. Many persons came and
established themselves here, and thus was founded Ado, which means
prostitution in memory of the goddess." — ("Fetichism," Baudin, p. 17.)
" The temple erected in this city is celebrated among the blacks.
40S SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
The neighboring kings offer an ox to the goddess on her feast-day,
and, in accordance with the legend, impure games are celebrated
in her honor." — (Idem.)
" In the Babylonian worship of the goddess Mylitta, the women
who offered themselves for a price to the stranger at the door of the
temple were distinguished by a peculiar apparel, according to Baruch.
. . . The women sit in the ways, girded with cordes of rushes and
burnt straw, " and "their resting-places distinguished with cords." —
(Purchas's "Pilgrims," vol. v. p. 56, art. " Hondius' Babylonia.")
In Ireland, at the present day, the peasautry make use, in divina-
tion and witchcraft, of " Saint Bridget's cord," made of rushes, and
corresponding closely to the cord of the goddess Mylitta.
We are not informed that horns were assumed as a distinctive fea-
ture of such uniform, but we are constantly kept in mind of the fact
that many, if not all, of the deities of the countries adjacent to the
Mediterranean were at one time or another represented with horns as
symbols of power. What, therefore, is more reasonable than to sup-
pose that the woman thus employed was decked with a head-dress of
horns 1 Or that her husband, without whose permission such prosti-
tution would have been impossible, and for whom it must have been
an act of equal religious importance, was similarly decorated 1
When new religions had succeeded in trampling into the dust the
sacred usages of the past, the fierce intolerance of the fanatic would
have had no greater delight than in ridiculing that which had been
the distinctive feature, perhaps, of the cult so recently overthrown.
Therefore the association of horns, formerly the typical attribute of
the heathen gods, would be transferred to the betrayed husband, and
what had been the outward sign of the most devout self-negation
would be turned into ridicule and opprobrium.
Brand, "Pop. Ant.," vol. ii. pp. 181 et seq. gives a perfect flood of
information on this subject, but nothing very satisfactory or definite, —
art. " Cornutes."
" Action, a cuckold ; from the horns placed on the head of Actrcon
by Diaua." (Grose, "Diet, of Buckish Slang," London, 1811.) This
myth may7 conceal the story of the intrusion of Actseon upon sacred
ceremonies of prostitution or his personal association therewith.
" Highgate ; sworn at Highgate. A ridiculous custom formerly pre-
vailed at the public houses in Highgate, to administer a ludicrous
oath to all travellers of the middling class who stopped there. The
party was sworn on a pair of horns, fastened on a stick ; the substance
TEMPLE OR SACKED PUOSTITCTIOX. 409
of the oath was never to kiss the maid when he could kiss the mis-
tress ; never to drink small beer when he could get strong ; with many-
other injunctions of the same kind, to all of which was added the
savin" clause, — ' unless you like it best.' The person administering
the oath was always to be called father by the juror, and he, in return,
was to style him son, under penalty of a bottle." — (Grose, "Dic-
tionary of Buckish Slang.'')
" Horn Fair ; an annual fair, held at Carlton, in Kent, on Saint Luke's
day, the 18th of October. It consists of a riotous mob, who, after a
printed summons, dispersed through the adjacent towns, meet at Cuck-
old's Point, near Deptford,and march from thence in procession through
that town and Greenwich to Charlton, with horns of different kinds
upon their heads ; and at the fair there are sold ranis' horns and every
sort of toy made of horn ; even the gingerbread figures have horns.
The vulgar tradition gives the following history of the origin of this
fair. King John, or some other of our ancieut kings, being at the
palace ofEltham in this neighborhood, and having been out hunting
one day, rambled from his company to this place, then a mean hamlet,
when, entering a cottage to inquire his way, he was struck with the
beauty of the mistress, whom he found alone; and having prevailed
over her modesty, the husband, returning suddenly, surprised them
together, and threatening to kill them both, the king was obliged to
discover himself, and to compound for his safety with a purse of gold,
and a grant of the land from this place to Cuckold's Point, besides
making the husband master of the hamlet. It is added that, in
memory of this, the fair was established for the sale of horns, and
all sorts of goods made of that material." — (Grose, idem.)
" In Minorca, the inhabitants have as much hatred of the word
'cueruo' as they have of 'diablo.'" (See Brand, "Pop. Ant.,"
vol. ii. p. 186, art. "Coroutes.") Possibly we have here an example
of the influence of the early Christian church exerted to make detest-
able everything connected with the deposed religion of the Medi-
terranean.
The horn still figures among the African tribes. Whenever one of
the petty kings at the head of the Nile " wishes to communicate with
another, he sends on the messenger's neck a horn, . . . which serves
both for credentials and security. . . . No one dare touch a Mbakka
with one of these horns upon his neck." — (Speke, " Nile," London,
1863, vol. ii. pp. 509, 521.)
Bruce says that, after a victory, the Abyssinian commanders wear a
■410 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
head-dress, surmounted by a Lorn, — a conical piece of silver, — gilt,
about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle-
extinguishers. This is called kem, or horn, and is only worn in pa-
rades or reviews after victory. This, I apprehend, like all other of
their usages, is taken from the Hebrews, and the several allusions
made in Scripture to arise from this practice. " I said unto fools,
Deal not foolishly, and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn." And
so in many other places throughout the Psalms. — (Bruce, " Nile,"
Dublin, 1791, vol. iii. p. 551. See also "Encyclopaedia of Geography,"
Philadelphia, 1845, vol. ii. p. 588, art. "Abyssinia." See also under
" Mistletoe ; " " Milk," and " Semen," under "Pharmacy ; " extract from
Pliny; extract from Leutili us ; extract from Etmuller ; "Perspiration,"
under " Pharmacy," and others.)
A "black letter" copy of "Malleus Maleficarum," one of the
"incunabula" from the press of Peter Schceffer, Mayence, 14S7, was
carefully examined; but besides being very dim and extremely hard to
decipher, it contained nothing not already given from other authorities.
CUBES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 411
XLV.
CUEES BY TRANSPLANTATION.
THE most curious method of alleviating physical and mental dis-
orders was that termed by various writers : " Cures by Trans-
plantation," by "Translation," by "Sympathy," and by "Magnetic
Transference."
There is a perfect embarrassment of riches on this division of our
subject, and the difficulty has been not to select, but to know what to
reject.
Etmuller enumerates five different kinds of cures by transplanta-
tion : 1. Insemenation, wherein " magnes muruia" (the spirit dis-
tilled from mummy flesh) was used to water the rich earth in which
certain seed had been planted ; but care must be taken in the selection
of the plant, some being beneficial, others noxious ; 2. Implantatio,
where a plant, already growing, or the root only of such a plant is
selected, and watered as above described; 3. Impositio, where some
of the skin of the diseased member, or some of the patient's excrement,
or anythiug else intimately connected with him, "aut ejus excremen-
tum aut utrumque," is inserted between the bark and body of a tree,
and the opening then tamped with mud. But in every case bear in
mind that if a slow, gradual cure is to be brought about, a slow-grow-
ing tree must be selected ; but for a speedy recovery, a quick-growing
tree ; 4. Inoratio, in which daily certain trees or plants, until cure
results, are to be watered with the " urina, sudore, fecibus alvi vel
lotura membri aut totius corporis ; " but it is recommended that each
irrigation be covered up with earth, to keep out the air; 5. Inescatio,
where "mummy" is given to an animal to eat; the animal will die,
the patient recover.
Human ordure was a frequent addition to the "spiritus mumiee."
Frommaun opens the way to a clearer understanding of the principles
upon which these cures depended. He states that not all diseases were
thus curable ; only those which in themselves were " movable." Poi-
412 SC.VTALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
sou could not be so cured, because its lethal action was effected too
quickly for the slow-moving remedial agency of transplantation. Inju-
ries to the "vital faculties,'' such as "aneurisms of the aorta," etc.,
were not transplantable. Worms ditto, although they were able to
move of their own will. " Lipothymia " or syncope, was not transfer-
able. All " transplantable " diseases were called " saline " diseases, be-
cause, according to the medical theories prevailing in those days, they
originated in some defect of the " salts " of the body. — (See From-
mann, "Tract, de Fascinatione," pp. 1017, 1018.)
Among the strongest " magnetic " medicines, according to Paracelsus,
was the one "ex stercore humano." — (See Etmuller, vol. i. p. 69.)
There was another : " Take a sufficient quantity of the ordure of a
healthy man, and make it into a poultice with human urine, to which
add sweat gathered from the body with a sponge ; place this in a clean
place in the shade until it dries, and when needed for use, moisten with
human blood. " Recipe copiosum stercus hominis sani, et hoc cum
urina ejusdem misce, redige in consistentiam pultis, adde quantum
habere potes sudoris ex hominibus sanis a linteo aut spongia collecti,
ponanlur simul in loco mundo in umbra donee siccentur, hinc adde san-
guiuem recentem, misce, sicca, et ad usum reserva."
Etmuller also mentions a " sympathetic " cure for quartan ague, in
which the hair of the patient was to be mixed with food and thrown to
birds, which, swallowing the food, took away the fever.
Another method was to take the clippings of the toe and finger
nails of the sick person, place them in an egg and throw them to the
birds; others again wrap them up in wax and early in the morning,
before the rising of the sun, affix the parcel to the door of a neighbor's
house, or else tie it to the back of a living crab, and throw the crab
back into the stream: "Sunt cui ad curandam febrem segmenta e
manibus et pedibus ovo includunt, avibusque devoranda objiciunt; alii
eadem cerse involvunt, matutinoque tempore ante solis ortum janute
affigunt, aliii dorso cancri vivi alligant, cancrumque fluenti comtnit-
tmit." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 2G5.)
The first excrement of a man sick with dysentery was mixed with
salt as a " magnetic " cure ; to this, some people added the powder of
eel-skins (Frommann, " Tractatus," p. 1012, et seq.). Yellow jaundice
patients urinated upon clean linen sheets ; if they succeeded in dyeing
them yellow they would recover soon ; if not, not (p. 1012) ; roots wet
with the patient's urine were burned as a cure for the yellow jaundice (p.
1013) ; all the clothing of an epileptic patient was burned, and the ashes
CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 413
thrown in a stream, down-stream (p. 1013) ; especially was this the
ease if any of it had been denied by alviue dejections voided in one of
the paroxysms ; and the same care was taken to burn this excrement
(p. 1013). (Note that epilepsy was always regarded as the sacred
disease; here we have a suggestion of human sacrifice.)
The method of curing by digging up the ground, depositing some
plant and enriching the surrounding soil with the patient's egestse is
given by Frommauu (p. 1010) ; but the trees or plants to be selected
for this purpose were to be those of forests or those which bore edible
fruits, " ut fraxinus, quercus, betula, tilia, fagus, aluus," etc. (Ash, oak,
birch, linden, beech, alder, etc.) The animals had to he such as did
not eat human flesh, as "canes, feles, equi, lupi, vulpes; " others could
be used on occasion, but the results were not so sure (idem, p. 1017).
There were two general methods: one, in which the "sanguis, pili,
excrementa " of the patient himself were offered; the other, in which
crabs, meat, eggs, lard, apples, and other things, were rubbed to the
affected parts and then offered (idem.)
Beckherius gives the recipe for effecting a "sympathetic cure" of
fever by clipping the finger and toe-nails of the patient and tying these
clippings in a rag to the door of a neighbor's house. "Si resegmine
unguium e manibus et pedibus deprompta, cera involvantur, matutini-
noque tempore ante solis exortum alieua; jauure affiguntur." And
wicked people were in the habit of preparing a draught composed of
equal parts of their dirty finger-nails and cantharides, and whoever
drank that in his liquor fell into a condition of atrophy (Med. mic.
pp. 15, 1G). When the patient's own hair was used in these cures, it
was placed in an egg and thrown to chickens. — (Idem, p. 8.)
Frommauu speaks of enclosing fragments of the patient's nails and
clippings of his hair in knots and throwing these in the road to be un-
tied by some curious person who would catch the disease. — ("Tract,
de Fasciuatione," p. 1003.)
The blood, urine, or excrement of the patient was to be placed in an
egg-shell and fed to barn-yard fowl. — (Idem.)
"Id quod alio modo per uriuam ajgri quoque fieri valet; qua ratione
cum sanguine, urina, excremeutis, aegrotantis multae sympathetic*
curte fieri possunt ; " and to this class belong such remedies as cutting
an apple or a piece of bacon in half, then hanging the piece up in the
chimney to melt or rot ; as fast as this was effected, the disease disap-
peared. Speaking of transplantation, he says: " Prions exemplum
est dum applicato stercore humano ad certam aliquam partem trans-
414 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
plantatnr eo ipso morbo in plautam cujus semen in terram hoc ster-
core mistam inferitur." The first example is where the ordure of the
patient is applied to a certain plant, and thus transfers the disease
from the patient to the plant.- — (Etmuller, "Opera Omnia," vol. i.
p. 69, Lyons, 1696.)
Etmuller teaches that clippings of the toe and finger nails tied to
the back of a living crab, which was then to be thrown into a stream
by a man who would perform the duty and return home without speak-
ing would effect cures ; similarly, for the alleviation of gout, he recom-
mends that these clippings be buried in a hole made in the bark of an
oak which should theu be closed with a wedge : " Abscinduiitur ungues
manuuni et pedum, alligantur dorso cancri viventis, et cancer istis
uuguibus oueratus, immittitur in flumen retrofaciem redeuudo sine
loquela, donee in doinum facta fuerit reversio. Instituuntur qq. trans-
plautationes pro viribus recuperandis per ungues. Sic in podagra.
. . . R.; Ungues pedis, atque immittuntur in foramen excavatum in
quercum et super foramen ponunt cuneum ex quo subito fit, ut re-
mittat dolor ac desinat Podagra" (vol. ii. p. 270.)
Etmuller mentions the cure by tying the fragments of finger and
toe nails to a crab, in another place in his works. For the recovery of
impaired strength, these clippings should be buried in the bark of a
cherry-tree, which should then be closed with ordure : " Ad recuper-
audos vires abscissos ungues et capillos cerasi radici iucisffi imponunt,
vulnusque fimo co-operiunt." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 265.)
" Denique si quid aliud singulare est si quis accipiat ovum recens,
hoc coquat cum urina propria ad assumptionem medietatis, quo facto
urina superstes projiciatur in flumen secundum ejusdem cursum, ovum
vel ita coctum leviter apertur immittatur in acervum formicarum.
Unde quaudo formica? assumpseruut ovum solutem erit fascinum "
(idem, vol. i. p. 462). " Finally, there is this singular method of
taking a fresh egg and putting it in some of the patient's own urine,
which is boiled down one half; the supernatant urine is then to be
thrown into a stream (down current) and the egg itself buried in an
ant-heap ; as fast as the ants consume the egg, the effects of the witch-
craft vanish."
Again, for the cure of gout, toe and finger nails were to be cut and
placed in an aperture in the bark of an oak-tree : " Vel dum ungues
pedum abscissi et in quercum terebratam inclusi, hominem liberum
reddunt a podagra." — (Idem, p. 69, vol. i.)
Urine was of great use in curing people bitten by serpents. " Per
CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 415
urinam solent fieri curationes magico-magueticse morborum, si scillicet
lardum vel potius caro porcina coquatnr ter iu uriua segri et caro ista
iucoctionis urinae postrnodum propiuetur caui vel porco devorauda, sic
euim sit, ut quam plurimi morbi curentur per transplantationem in
auiraalia quas devorant carnem et urinam." — (Etmuller, p. 271.)
Hog-lard or a lardy hog-skin, rubbed on warts and then suspended
in the chimney or buried in horse-dung, caused the warts to disappear
as fast as it decayed. " Suspendatur iu camiuo furni, vel in fimo
equino sepeliatur, . . Sicut exsiccatur in fumo, vel putrescit in fimo
lardum ita exsiccetur et putrescat verruca." (Idem.) Half a dozen
methods of employing hog-dung are given.
Frommann quotes Ratray as saying from his own observation that
there was a "sympathy" between the patient's urine when enclosed in
a glass vial and the condition of the patient himself, — a sort of " baro-
metrical " sympathy, as we would term it. At an earlier period of
culture the urine would have been placed in the horn of a goat, or iu
the bladder of a hog.
The methods of effecting these cures by placing the patient's urine
in an ants' nest, in any manner, are all given by Johannes Christiauus
Frommann (" Tract, de Fascinat.," pp. 1004 et seq.) ; also the method
by boiling an egg in the urine and placing the egg iu the nest of ants
(p. 1005) ; also the method of making bread with the patient's urine,
and giving the bread to a dog to eat (p. 1005). In Italy there was a
variant of this custom, consisting in giving bread made with the urine
of a male patient to a male dog, and that made with the mine of a sick
woman to a bitch (idem). Yellow jaundice was cured by boiling a
piece of meat in the patient's urine and giving said meat to a dog
(idem) ; for the cure of rupture the patient should soak some barley
in his urine, and then bury the barley iu the bark of a tree (p. 1007).
Another mode of cure by transplantation was for the patient to urinate
in a vial of glass, stop it up with a linen rag or a paper wad, and bury
it in the earth (p. 1010). For the cure of yellow jaundice, the patient
dug a hole in the ground and urinated therein before sunrise (pp. 1010,
1011) ; for the cure of dysentery the patient deposited his excrement
on a piece of ash and left it in a hole (p. 1011) ; fever patieuts threw
their excrement iu a stream (idem). Other modes were to make a mix-
ture of the urine of the sick man, mixed with ashes, let the mass dry
in the sun, and then put it by the embers of the kitchen fire to bake
(p. 1012) ; the ordure of a man sick from " incautatiou " was applied
416 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
to the place of the spell, and then hung up (enclosed in a hog's bladder)
for three days in the smoke of the chimney (idem).
In his long and most interesting chapter upou the cure of diseases by
the use of human ordure, " magically or sympathetically," Schurig re-
lates many quaint and curious methods of employment of the alvine
dejections of those supposed to be almost in artkulo mortis. For ex-
ample, the ordure of the patient was taken, placed in the hollow of a
dead man's bone, which was then thrown into boiling water. This
remedy, if we can trust Schurig, seems to have been of the highest
efficacy. Another mode was to mix the ordure with the lees of wine
and the pounce of cherries, and let the mass ferment together ; or
the ordure was collected and thrown into running water. — (See
Schurig, " Chylologia," pp. 783, 781. The whole chapter " De Ster-
coris Humani Usu Magico seu Sympathetico," No. xiii. should be
read.)
Goat-urine was applied to sore eyes ; but a more certain cure in grave
cases was additionally effected by hanging some of it in a goat's horn
for twenty days. "Si cumcoruu capras suspenditur diebus viginti." —
(Sextus Placitus, " De Med. ex Animal.," article " De Capro.'')
Beckherius has a " sympathetic " cure for the yellow jaundice.
Make a poultice of horse-dung and the patient's own urine, and hang
it up in the chimney. "Fimum equiuum cum urina regri sic misce,
ut pultis referat cousistentiam, hoec linteolo excipe, et in camino sus-
pende ut fumo semper sunt exposita." ("Med. Microcos.," p. 65.)
Another was to hang the urine of the patient in a bladder in the
chimney ; as the urine evaporated the patient was to recover. " Pro-
priam urinam vesica suilla excerpisse et hanc in fumo exposuisse
seque observasse ad exsiccationem. Urina in vesica ipsum quoque
icteritiam evanuisse." (Idem, p. 65.) Another cure of yellow jaun-
dice was a dose, morning and evening, of a mixture of human urine
and horse-radish. (Idem, p. 66.) There was still another " sympa-
thetic " cure : the patient urinated in a vessel, which was allowed to
evaporate by the fire, and this was continued for nine days. — (Idem,
p. 66.)
For consumption Beckherius gives a " sympathetic " cure (already
noted from other sources) of boiling an egg in the patient's urine until
it hardens, and then burying it in an ant-hill. (Idem, p. 75.) The
same cure was employed in fevers. (Idem.)
A pinch of salt, the size of a big bean, was wrapped in a linen rag,
and dipped in the urine of the patient for a whole day ; then heated in
CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 417
the fire until it became reddish in color ; some of this was sprinkled on
bread, and the patient rubbed with it morning and evening. — (" Medi-
ans Microcosmus,'' pp. 75, 76.)
A fresh egg was boiled in the sick person's urine, and then thrown
to the fishes. " Receus ovum in uriua segri quod in piscinam ubi
pisces sunt conjiciatur, et mumento febrem cessare dicunt." — (Idem,
p. 78.)
Still another was to make a cake out of flour moistened with the
urine of the sick ; throw this to the fishes. The fishes who ate it
would take the disease, and the patient recover. " Subige farinam
cum urina segri ad formam placentulse ; coque hsec in forno, instar
pania objice piscibus, ut ab iis devoretur; abit febris, maxime quar-
tana." — (Idem.)
Frommami devotes a long chapter to cures by "transplantation."
He cites from Pliny the method of curing a bad cough by spitting
iuto the mouth of a toad (tree-toad ; see notes already taken), and
also gives another in which the urine of the patient made into a
dough with flour, was given to a dog or hog. — (•' Tract, de Fascinat."
p. 1002.)
Frommann believed with Von Helmont that there was nothing super-
stitious about such cures, because there were no rites and no incanta-
tions used. (Idem, p. 1033.) But later on, he mentions having heard
a woman (who was trying one of these cures by rolling some of her
son's hair in wax and burying the wax ball in an incision in an apple-
tree) recite certain words, which she declined to repeat for him when
asked ; hence he was in some doubt about her particular case (p. 1034).
He quotes the English Count of Digby as stating that he knew of a
nurse who carelessly allowed some of a baby's excrement to be burned
up in a fire ; the result was the child suffered terribly from excoriation
of the fundament (p. 1038). The way in which a cure was effected in
this case was the " sympathetic " one of placing the baby's excrements
for three days in a basin filled with cold water, and exposing in a cold
place (p. 1039).
Dropsy was cured by hanging the patient's urine (enclosed in a
pig's bladder) up in a chimney, and neglecting all other remedies.
" Urinam ejus recentem vesica suilla conclusam in camino suspendi,
curavi. (Idem, p. 1047.) A young virgin was cured of a tertian
fever by giving to a hen bread made with the urine voided during the
paroxysms. The girl recovered ; the hen died. " Virginis cujusdam
febre iutermittente tertiana laborantis urinam calidam in paroxysmo
27
418 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
redditam gallinns familicse cum pane mistam exhiberi curavi "
(p. 1047).
See also notes from Samuel Augustus Flemming, under " Per-
spiration."
Dr. Joseph Lanzoni did not believe that any good results followed
the suspension above the earth, in a sow's bladder, of human urine in
cases of suppression of urine, as was often to be noticed among Jews
and some of the religious orders. " Urinas suppressiouem minime
referare vesicam suis suspensam, quse non tetigit terram, quod nonnulli
volunt, observavi in quodatn Religioso et Hebrseo." — ("Phemer.
Physic-Medic," Leipsig, 1694, vol. i. p. 49.)
Paullini taught that fevers of all kinds could be cured by pouring
the patient's urine into a fish-pond. " Such of the fish as drink of
that water," he says, " will receive the fever, which will leave the
sick man."
For the " sympathetic " cure of epilepsy, all the clothing worn by
the patient during the paroxysm, even his shoes, were to be carefully
burned, and the ashes cast into flowing water. More than this ; if,
during the attack, the patient had defecated, the ordure was collected,
and with everything touched by it, burned up with the same care.
" Houiinis epilepticum insultum primum patientis sive junior sit, sive
senior indumenta omnia et vestes indusium, calcei, tibialis, et similia
sub dio comburantur, et in cinerem redigantur ; cinis vero in aquam
fluvialem secundum flumen projiciatur. Si autem jam ante homo
epilepsia laboravit, ad alvi excremeuta in ipso paroxysmo reddita at-
tendatur ; quae si adest res commaculata cum ipsis excrementis modo
jam dicto comburatur." — (Schurig, " Chylologia," p. 1013, quoting
Frommann.)
Schurig gives the recipe of Johannes Philippus ab Hertodt for the
preparation of a " sympathetic " powder, which serves to inform us as
to the incoherent ideas of the practitioners of a couple of centuries
ago. Freely translated, it reads, "Take of a healthy human mummy,
moistened with a little urine ; let it be dried in a place exposed to an
east wind, but not to the sun, until it shall be reduced to powder;
this is to be mixed with an equal weight of cream of tartar, and the
' sympathetic powder of vitriol,' prepared according to formula, in the
dog-days ; or of the salt of Hungarian vitriol, heated to whiteness in
a furnace. A pinch of this sympathetic powder should be sprinkled
upon the feces of the sick person, or upon a cloth dipped in his urine,
and then preserved in a cool place. Its efficacy was vouched for in
CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 419
the highest terms : " Effective curat omnia vulnera, ulcera, febres
petechiales, et urina fabulum, periculosissimas hfemorrhagias puerpe-
rarum, arthriditem quamcunque, podagram et illam vagam dictam,
pulmonis apostemata, hfemorrhoides nimias, narium fluxus immo-
dicos, capitis dolores, catarrhos, fluxos albos mulierum, menstrua copi-
osa, morsus canis rabidi, vel alterium cujuscunque auimalis, item
mammas ulceratas." — (Schurig, pp. 775, 776.)
Schurig adds a number of these cures for dysentery, sdch as
placing the dejecta in the retort used for the distillation of vitriol,
. . . sprinkling such dejecta with salt, or with vitriol, or mixing them
with hot ashes and live coals ; preferably, the excrement to be thus
employed should be the first ejected having a bloody tinge.
"The various modes of application of these remedies are too long for
insertion here, but are valuable to the student as showing how deep-
seated was the belief in the occult properties of the excreta them-
selves."—(" Chylologia," pp. 785, 786.)
The following is an old French "sympathetic" recipe for the cure
of all kinds of colic : " Pour la colique ce sera ici la recette d'un vilain
remede, mais pourtant sympathique en ceux qui sont tourment^s de
la colique, car s'ils mettent sous la selle percee bien fermee de la fiente
de vachje fraichement recueillie, et qu'ils pissent et dechargent les
excrements de leur ventre dessus, par sympathie sans difficulte ils
auront du soulagement." — (Lazarus Neyssonier, quoted by Schurig,
" Chylologia," pp. 784, 785.)
For the "sympathetic" cure of hernia, the root of the herb "wall-
wort" was smeared with the ordure of the patient, and then buried
in the ground. "Radicem Symphti Oleto Proprio delibutam et in
terrain defossam." — (Idem, p. 787.)
To stop hemorrhage " sympathetically," whether from wounds or
other injuries, some of the flowing blood was taken, and mixed with
the ordure of the patient, and the mixture then exposed in a jar to
the action of the air. "Contra heemorrhagias, sive in ltesonibus et
vulneribus, ut sanguis sistatur, misce sanguinem ex sanguine proflu-
entem cum proprio stercore et in olla ad dessicandum aeri libero
expone." — (Idem, p. 787.)
A patient suffering from yellow jaundice should urinate upon horse-
dung while warm. This same remedy seems to have been in vogue in
helping women in the expulsion of the placenta. One of the pre-
scriptions given by Schurig states that the horse-dung must be from
420 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
an animal that was not tired at the time of the evacuation, — " non
defatigati." — (Idem, p. 812 et seq.)
A "sympathetic" cure by the use of the dung of horses seems to.
be implied in the case of infants' small-pox, where we find it suspended
in beer ; " pendatur in cerevisiam . . . propterea ne fauces affligantur
a variolis quod alias solet esse casus periculosissimus." — (Etmuller,
vol. ii. p. 204.)
" There is no doubt that the practice was at one time very general,
but it would now be a waste of time to go into particulars respecting
the various compositions of the sympathetical curers ; the manner in
which their vitriol was to be prepared by exposure for three hundred
and sixty-five days to the sun, the unguents of human fat and blood,
mummy, moss of dead man's skull, bull's blood and fat, and other
disgusting ingredients." — (" Medical Superstitions," Pettigrew, Phil-
adelphia, 1844, p. 200.)
For ague, " let the urine of the sick body, made early in the morn-
ing, be softly heated nine daies continually untill all be consumed
into vapour." — (Reginald Scot, " Discoverie," p. 190.)
In Great Britain and Ireland, " ague in a boy is cured by a cake
made of barley-meal and his urine, and given to a dog to eat ; the
dog, in the case cited, had a shaking fit, and the boy was cured."
(" Folk-Medicine," Black, p. 35. In a footnote there is added, " Petti-
grew, 'Superstitions connected with the practice of Medicine and Sur-
gery,' p. 77.") Madame de Scudery mentions a similar cure for fever
in a letter of date 20th of October, 1077, to the Comte de Bussy.
Speaking of an abbe of fame, " On dit qu'il ne fait que prendre pour
toutes les fievres de Purine des malades dans laquelle il fait durcir un
ceuf hors de sa coque, apres quoi il le donne a manger a un chien qui
prend en merae temps la fievre du malade qui par ce moien en guerit.
C'est une question de fait que je n'ay pas eprouvee." — ("Notes aud
Queries," 5th series, vol. viii. p. 120.)
The following are given as cures by "transplantation." "Seven or
nine — it must be an odd number — cakes, made of the newly emitted
urine of the patient, with the ashes of ash wood, and buried for some
days in a dunghill, will, according to Paracelsus, cure the yellow
jaundice." In the journal of Dr. Edward Browne, transmitted to his
father, Sir Thomas Browne, we read of " a magical cure for the jaun-
dice : Burn wood under a laden vessel filled with water ; take the ashes
of that wood, and boyle it with the patient's urine ; then lay nine long
heaps of the boyld ashes upon a board in a rank, aud upon every heap
CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 421
lay uine spears of crocus." — (" Medical Superstitions," Pettigrew,
Philadelphia, Penn., 1844, p. 103.)
We are likewise informed of "the cure of jaundice by the burying
in a dunghill a cake made of ashes and the patient's urine. Ague in
a boy was cured by a similar cake made of barley-meal and his urine,
aud given to a dog to eat ; the dog had a shaking fit, and the boy was
cured."
" Boys were cured of warts by taking an elder-stick and cutting as
many notches in it as there were warts, and then rubbing it upon the
warts, and burying it in a dunghill." — (Idem, p. 104.)
"Blisters on the tongue are caused by telling fibs. When they
show no disposition to leave, the following process is adopted. Three
small sticks are cut from a tree, each about the length of a finger, aud
as thick as a pencil ; these are inserted in the mouth, and buried in a
dung-hill ; the next day the operation is repeated, as well as on the
third day ; after which the three sets of sticks are allowed to remain
in the manure, and as they decay the complaint will disappear." —
("Folk-Lore of the Pennsylvania Germans," Hoffman, p. 28.)
" The following procedure for the cure of bronchitis is still practised
in Berks County. Make a gimlet hole in the door-frame, at the exact
height of the patient's head, into which insert a small tuft of his hair,
aud close the hole with a peg of wood ; then cut off the projecting
portion of the peg. As the patient grows in height beyond the peg,
so will the disease be outgrown." — (Idem, p. 28.)
" Gout may be transferred from a man to a tree, thus: Pare the
nails of the sufferer's fingers, and clip some hair from his legs. Bore
a hole in an oak, stuff the nails and hair in the hole, stop up the hole
again, and smear it with cow's dung." — (" The Golden Bough,"
Frazer, vol. ii. p. 153, quoting Grimm. Bavaria.)
A curious method of relieving and eradicating all kinds of colic by
" transplantation " is related aud described by Schurig. The excre-
ment voided during one of the paroxysms should be buried in an un-
frequented spot. The grass growing on the soil where the ordure had
been deposited would be eaten by domestic cattle, which would acquire
the disease, relieving the sufferer. " Excremeuta tempore paroxysmi
reddita sepeliantur in locum a viatorum frequeutia separatum. Gra-
men quod enascitur super terrain cui stercora commissa fuerint, bovi
vel agno pabuli loco offertur, quod ubi comederit, colica transplanta-
tur ab homine in brutum, et nunquam ipsum reafHiget." (Schurig,
" Chylologia," p. 7S5.) Other people took the patieut's excrement,
422 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
dried it in the open air, mixed it with sweet wine, and gave it to the
sick man to drink. "Sunt qui illud idem exceptuni in aere exsiccant,
cum vino edulcorant et patieuti propinant." — (Idem, p. 785.)
Nurses were cautioned not to let the excrement of the babies under
their care touch the hot coals or cinders of the fire ; they should throw
all the excrement in at once, or not at all. If we are to understand
that this excrement was to be habitually thrown into the kitchen fire, a
most charming idea is conveyed of the Arcadian simplicity of European
life several centuries back.
" Hoc loco monendee quoque sunt nutrices vel alise muliercula; in-
fantulis administrates ne infantum excrementibus contegat, aut post
nioduni omnia simul in ignem projieiunt. Exinde enim plurima syrup-
tomata exoriri soleut." — (Schurig, p. 995.)
The case is cited of a physician suffering from marasmus, or emacia-
ciation. " He took an egg and boiled it hard in his own urine ; he
then with a bodkin perforated the shell iu many places and buried it in
an ant-hill, where it was to be kept to be devoured by the emmets ; and
as they wasted the egg he found his distemper to abate." — (Pettigrew,
" Med. Superstitions," p. 102 )
" Among medical men . . . the Galenist of much repute, of whom
Boyle writes, was induced, when other means of cure failed, to boil an
egg in his own urine. The egg was afterwards buried in an ant-hill,
and as the egg wasted the physician found his distemper go and his
strength increase. In Staffordshire a correspondent says that to cure
jaundice a bladder is often filled with the patient's urine and placed
near the fire ; as the water dries up the jaundice goes, and, were it
necessary, other instances could be given of this superstition." —
(Black, " Folk-Medicine," p. 56.)
The following " sympathetic " cure is from Steller's " Kamtchatka "
(pp. 362 and 367) : When a man is suffering from incontinence of
urine, a wreath is made of the soft herb " eheu ; " in the centre of this
some fish-spawn is placed, and then the sufferer makes his water upon
it. — (Translated by Mr. Bunnemeyer.)
Ordure alone or mixed with urine, made into a sausage by being put
into a hog's bladder, and hung up in the chimney, was of " magical
use " in the treatment of yellow jaundice. Christian Franz Paullini's
own son was cured by mixing his own ordure with asses' urine in this
manner. The following are some of the extracts from Schurig referred
to in this paragraph : " Ab Incantatione introductis doloribus externe
impositum sulphur hoc occidentale magni usus esse dicitur. . . . Alii
CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 423
addunt allium, atque elapsis post impositionem viginti quatuor horis
funio culinari hsec committunt. . . . Contra ejusmodi dolores a veue-
ficio alliis placent cataplasniata ex stercore maleficiati in vesicain
porcinam injecto et in Caminum ad suffuuiigandurn suspenso. . . .
In veneficio arcendo notum est, quod stercus humanum sit magni
usus si scilicet parti ex veneficio dolenti applicetur stercus huma-
num vel solum, vel cum allio, vel asafcetida ; sic enim est ut
alii qui perpetravit veneficium sapiant omnia stercus humanum et
allium, adeo ut necessum habeant solvere veneficium. . . . Pro icteri
cura magica stercus, vel perse, vel cum urina mixtum, vesicae suilla?
iudunt atque in camino suspendunt, Christiauus Frauciscus Paullini
cujusdam meminit, qui filii sui icterici stercus cum urina asini commix-
tum modo tractavit." — (Schurig, " Chylologia," pp. 787, 788.)
When cures were to be effected by the method called by some au-
thors " insemination " each disease seemed to require its special plant.
Thus yellow jaundice required swallow-wort and juniper berries;
dropsy, absinthe (worm-wood) and box-elder ; pleurisy, the poppy ;
the plague, the plant known as scordium (this plant smells like garlic),
etc. — (Frommann, " Tract, de Fascinat.," p. 1030.)
The following problem is presented for solution or for such explana-
tion as competent scholars may find it possible to give.
We know that every disease was looked upon as an infliction from
some angry god ; on the other hand, we know also that for each disease
there was some god, in later days some saint, to whom the afflicted
might appeal ; we know also that certain plants were sacred to certain
divinities. Therefore the question to be answered is, Were the plants
hereinbefore specified those which were sacred to those gods who had
charge of those diseases respectively? The examination to be com-
plete should include all that may now survive among European peas-
antry of the worship of Roman, Phoenician, Celtic, Teutonic, or even
Egyptian or Etruscan, deities
Grimm recites the names of the trees employed for the cure of dif-
ferent diseases, — epilepsy, peach-blossoms; ague, elder-tree; gout, fir-
tree ; ague, willow ; gout, young pine-tree. — (" Teut. Mythology.")
Why was Apollo supposed to love the laurel and the cornel cherry,
" Pluto the cypress and the maiden-hair, — a moisture-loving fern,
which we may take for granted could not be very plentiful in his
chosen realm, — Luna the dittany, Ceres the daffodil, Jupiter the oak,
Minerva the olive, Bacchus the vine, and Venus the myrtle-shade 1 "
424 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
— (Extract from an article entitled "Flowers as Emblems," in
" Standard," London, copied in "Sun," New York, May 12, 1889.)
" A sick man's perspiration from the brow wiped off with bread, and
given to a dog, will cure the patient." — (Sagen-Marchen, " Volksaber-
glauben aus Schwaben," Freiburg, 18G1, p. 494.)
As a certain cure for witchcraft take the excrement of the patient,
put it in a pig's bladder, and hang it up in the chimney; or let him
take some of his own excrement, inwardly, dissolved in vinegar ;
or apply human excremeut to the bewitched part, then put that ex-
crement in a pig's bladder, and hang it up in the chimney to smoke
for three or four days. — (Paullini, pp. 260, 261.)
By the French, urine was considered a certain cure for fever. Such
an amount of superstition attached to the panacea that the prescrip-
tion may well be given in full : —
" Knead a small loaf with urine voided in the worst stage of his
fever by a person haviug the quaternary ague. Bake the loaf, let it
cool, and give it to be eaten by another person. Repeat the same
duriug three different attacks, and the fever will leave the patient and
go to the person who has eaten the bread."
Another one runs in these terms : —
" Take an egg, boil it hard, and break off the shell. Prick the egg
in different places with a needle, steep it in the urine of a person
afflicted with fever, and then give it to a man if the patient be a man,
to a woman if a woman, and the recipient will acquire the fever, which
will abandon the patieut." *
This remedy Thiers traces back to the Romans, quoting from Horace
iu support of his assertion.
The second recipe finds its parallel in the " Chinook olives," described
in the first pages of this work.
The fact that human ordure was the panacea by which all the effects
of witchcraft could be undone, and all charms and incantations frus-
trated, can easily be shown from the citations to be found in Schurig.
1 Petrir un jietit pain avec l'urine qu'une personne malade de la fievre quarte
aura rendue dans le fort de son acces, le faire cuire, le laisser froidir, le donner k
manger a un . . . et faire trois fois la meme chose pendant trois acces, le . . .
prendra la fievre quarte et elle quittera la personne malade.
Faire durcir un ceuf, le peler, le piquer de divers coups d'aiguille, le tremper
dans l'urine d'une personne qui a la fievre . . . puis le donner h. un . . . si le
malade est un male, ou a une . . . si le malade est une femelle et la fievre s'en
ira. — (Thiers, " Traite des Superstitions, Paris, 1745, vol. i. lib. v. cap. iv. p. 3S6,
copied in picart, "Coutumes et Ceremonies," etc., Amsterdam, 1729, vol. x. p. 80.)
CUKES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 425
" Occidental sulphur," applied externally to the pains occasioned by-
incantations was said to be very efficacious. Others added garlic, and
twenty-four hours after exposed the mixture to the smoke of the
kitchen-fire. Others again took the ordure of the bewitched person,
made sausage of it, and hung it np to be smoked in the kitchen-fire.
Various instances are given of the efficacy of human ordure in undo-
ing the work of witches ; it was to be applied alone or mixed with
garlic or assafcetida.
Take a liver, cut in pieces, and secretly place in the urinal of the
patient; if the patient unconsciously use the chamber for defecation
he will recover — (" Sageu-Miirchen, Volksaberglauben," etc., Drs. Bir-
linger and Buck, p. 481.)
The method of curing fevers by imbedding clippings of the finger
and toe nails of the patient in wax and affixing to another person's
door-post, is mentioned by Pliny (lib. xxxviii. c. 24).
The same are given, with the others already noted, by Frommaun.
— ("Tractatus de Fascinatione," p. 1003 et seq.)
Etmuller says that the oak was the tree most highly commended ;
to secure a good set of teeth, one of the milk teeth was buried in an
oak ; to restore falling hair, some of the patient's hair ; to cure gout,
some of his toe-nail clippings, etc. — (Etmuller, vol. i. p. 127.)
" Iu Donegal, the sufferer should seek a straw with nine knees, and
cut the knots that form the joints of every one of them, any superflu-
ous knots being thrown away ; then bury the knot in a midden or
dung-heap ; and as the joints rot, so will the warts." — (" Folk-Medi-
cine," p. 57.)
Grose says, " To cure warts, steal a piece of beef from a butcher's
shop and rub your warts with it; then throw it down the necessary-
house, or bury it; and as the beef rots, your warts will decay." —
(Brand, "Pop. Ant." vol. iii. p. 276, art. "Physical Charms.")
The American cures for warts in which the sufferer is enjoined to
steal a piece of meat, etc., are a perfect " survival " from the above,
while the " cure" given by Mark Twain, in his story of " Huckleberry
Finn" —
" Barley-corn, barley-corn, Indian meal shorts.
Spunk water, spunk water, swallow these warts,"
may be classed as a "distorted survival."
" A piece of meat is cut from one of the arms of the menaced man
(i. e. menaced with death), and a lock of hair from the opposite side of
his head, and cast into the fire ; and he is rubbed with artsmisia,
426 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
dipped in water, as this plant is the food of the ghosts. These rites,
omitting the cutting of the flesh and hair, must be performed on four
successive nights." — (" Death and Funeral Customs among the Oma-
has," Francis La Flesche, in "Jour, of Amer. Folk-Lore," Jan. March,
1889, p. 4.)
" The Orkney islanders will wash a sick person and then throw the
water down a gateway in the belief that the sickness will leave the
patient and be transferred to the first person who passes through
the gate." — ("The Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. ii. p. 153.)
These cures by " transplantation " are still to be found in full vigor
among the descendants of the immigrants from Westphalia and the
Palatinate who made their homes in the State of Pennsylvania.
For the cure of jaundice: " Hollow out a carrot, fill it with the pa-
tient's urine, and hang it, by means of a string, in the fireplace. As
the urine is evaporated, and the carrot becomes shrivelled, the disease
will leave the patient. In this there is an evident belief in the connec-
tion between the properties and color of the carrot and the yellow skin
of the patient having jaundice. To this class may belong the belief
respecting the use of a band of red flannel for diphtheria, and yellow or
amber beads for purulent discharges from the ears." — (" Folk-Med. of
the Peim'a Germans," Hoffman, Amer. Phil. Society, 1889.)
Keference should be had to Black's notes upon a similar custom in
Staffordshire, where, instead of a carrot, a bladder is filled." — (" Folk-
Medicine," p. 56.)
"Convulsions in a child are sometimes due to the influence of the
fairies." Mooney describes a cure effected by a mother who " picked
from the roadside ten small white pebbles, known as ' fairy stones.'
On reaching home, she put nine of these stones into a vessel of urine
and threw the tenth into the fire. She also put into the vessel some
chicken-dung and three sprigs of a plant (probably ivy or garlic) which
grew on the roof above the door. She then stripped the child and
threw into the fire the shirt and other garments which were worn next
the skin. The child was then washed from head to foot, wrapped in a
blanket and put to bed. There were nine hens and a rooster on the
rafters above the door. In a short time the child had a violent fit and
the nine hens dropped dead upon the floor. The rooster dropped down
from his perch, crew three times, and then flew again to the rafters.
If the woman had put the tenth stone with the others, he would have
dropped dead with the hens. The child was cured." — (" Med. Mythol.
of Ireland," James Mooney, " Amer. Phil. Soc." 1887.)
CURES BY TRANSPLANTATION. 427
Mooney remarks upon the above : " This single instance combines
in itself a number of important features in connection with the popu-
lar mythology ; the dung, the urine, the plant above the door, the
chickens, the fire and the garment worn next the skin, and introduces
also a new element into the popular theory of disease, viz. : the idea
of vicarious cure, or rather of vicarious sacrifice. This belief, which
is -general, is that no one can be cured of a dangerous illness, unless, as
the people express it, ' something is left in its place ' to suffer the sick-
ness and death." — (Idem.)
In the case of a " changeling child," the mother was ordered to leave
it "on the dung-hill to cry and not to pity it." — (Hazlitt's edition of
"Fairy Tales," Loudon, 1875, p. 372.)
" At Sucla-Tirtha, in India, an earthen pot containing the accumu-
lated sins of the people, is annually set adrift on the river." — ("The
Golden Bough," Frazer, p. 192, vol. ii.)
See notes under " Catamenial Fluid," from Etmuller.
428 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XLVI.
THE USE OF THE LINGAM IN INDIA.
T N connection with the Lingamic ritual in India, there remain usages
-1- now degenerated into symbolism, which cannot be interpreted in
any other sense than as "survivals" of very obscene and disgusting
practices in the primitive life of that region. In describing the sacri-
fice called Poojah, Maurice says : " The Abichegam makes a part of
the Poojah. This ceremony consists in pouring milk upon the lingam.
This liquor is afterwards kept with great care, and some drops are
given to dying people that they may merit the delights of the Calaison."
The "salagram of the Yishnuites is the same as the lingam of the
Seevites." " Happy are those favored devotees who can quaff the
sanctified water in which either has been bathed." — (" Ind. Ant."
vol. v. pp. 146, 179.)
Dulaure describes the rites of the Cochi-couris, in which the sacred
water of the Ganges is first poured upon the lingam ; it is then pre-
served to be dealt out in drops to the faithful ; it is specially service-
able in soothing the last hours of the dying. The Lingam is the
Phallic symbol. The water or milk sanctified by it may represent a
former employment of urine, such, as will be shown, as prevailed all over
Europe. The use of lingam water is perhaps analogous to that of
mistletoe water, previously noted.
In speaking of the "mysteries" of the goddess "Cotitta," a popular
Venus of the isle of Chios, Dulaure says: " Les inities, qui se livrai-
ent a tous les exces de la debauche, y employaient le Phallus d'une
maniere particuliere ; ils etaient de verre et servaient de vases a boire."
He quotes Juvenal, satire 2, verse 95, as saying of the extreme license
of these mysteries: "vitreo bibit ille Priapo." — (" Des Divinites
Generatrices.")
Does not the preceding paragraph, in the lines from the Roman
satirist, conceal under a very gauzy veil, a dirty proceeding akin to the
urine dance of the Zuiiis?
THE USE OF THE LINGAM tH INDIA. 4C9
Frommann quotes the above lines from Juvenal, without attempting
to enter upon an explanation of them. (See " Tract, de Fascinatione,"
p. 333.) Rev. Lewis Evans, a Fellow of Wadham's College, Oxford,
translates them as follows in his edition of " Juvenal : " —
"Another drains a Priapus-shaped glass."
But Gifford renders it : —
Montfaucon says that in the Festivals of Priapus " celebrated by the
women . . . the priestess sprinkles Priapus with water. — (1' Anti-
quite expliqu^e," lib. i. part 2, c. xxviii. ; in the first volume is a repre-
sentation of a phallic vase with human ears attached.)
" Verser quelques gouttes sur la tete dans la bouche des agonisants."
— ("Dulaure, Des. Div. Generat," Paris, 1825, pp. 105, 106, 111.)
" In a manuscript of the church of Beauvais about the year 500, it is
said that the chanter and canons shall stand before the gates of the
church, which were shut, holding each of them urns full of wine with
glass cups, of whom one canon shall begin the Kalends of January." —
(Fosbroke, "British Monachism," p. 81.)
In out of the way nooks and corners in Europe, intelligent observ-
ers may still stumble upon traces of the religious observances alluded
to in Juvenal ; Mr. Macaulay, of Philadelphia, Penn'a, who lived for a
time near Monaco, in the Riviera, imparts the information that, in
that section of Italy he had personally noticed such a peculiar custom;
i. e. that of assembling each family on Christmas eve, in a semicircle,
rouud the fire ; the youngest boy urinated on the blazing log ; then the
father took a glass goblet, filled with white wine, and sprinkled the
log with an olive branch ; finally, all sipped from the goblet, the con-
teuts of which Mr. Macaulay said he had been told were undoubtedly
symbolical of urine.
Among people farther to the north, the same worship of fire by offer-
ing food and drinking a libation still obtains without any offensive
features.
In Sweden and Xorway " early in the morning, the good wife has
been up, making her fire and baking ; she now assembles her servants
in a half-circle before the oven door, they all bend the knee, take one
bit of cake, and drink the fire's health ; what is left of cake or drink is
cast into the flame." — (Grimm, " Teut. Mythol." vol. ii. p. 629.)
" Our German sageu and marchen have retained the feature of kneel-
430 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
ing before the oven and praying to it. . . . The unfortunate, the per-
secuted, resort to the oven and bewail their woe, they reveal to it some
secret which they dare not confess to the world." — (Idem, p. 629.)
" A leur Coleda, les Serbes font bruler une buche de chene, l'arrosent
de vin, la frappent en faisant voler les etincelles, et orient : ' Autant
d'etiucelles, autant de chevres et de brebis.' " — ("Les Primitifs,"
Reclus, p. 111.)
The resemblance to the customs of the East Indies was, in places,
even closer than as above indicated.
Inman tells of sterile women who drank " priapic wine," i. e. wine
poured upon an upright conical stone representing the lingam, and then
collected and allowed to turn sour. — (Inman, " Ancient Faiths," etc.,
vol. i. p. 305, article " Asher.")
The same statement is to be found in Hargrave Jennings' work,
" Phallicism," London, 1884, p. 256, but it seems to be repeated from
Inman and Dulaure. Campbell reports that " among the principal
relics of the Church at Embrun was the statue of Saint Foutin. The
worshippers of this idol poured libations of wine upon its extremity,
which was reddened by the practice. This wine was caught in a jar
and allowed to turn sour. It was then called ' holy vinegar,' and was
used by the women as a lotion to anoint the yoni." — (" Phallic Wor-
ship," Robert Allen Campbell, St. Louis, Mo., 1888, p. 197.)
Among the Apache Indians of Arizona, the Zufjis, Moquis, and Pue-
blos, the author has seen large arrow or spear shaped pieces of flint
which had been obtained under peculiar circumstances, were regarded
as possessed of great virtues, and were worn round the necks by the
women, generally by those who professed " medicine " powers. Frag-
ments of these flints were ground to fine powder, and administered to
women while pregnant, to ensure safe delivery ; all that was learned of
these stones will be presented in another work ; the veneration paid
them seems to be closely associated with the worship of lightning.
Vallencey, in his "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," No. xiii. 17,
says : " In the Highlands of Scotland, a large chrystal, of a figure
somewhat oval, was kept by the priests to work charms by ; water
poured upon it at this day is given to cattle against diseases; these
stones are now preserved by the oldest and most superstitious in the
country." — (Brand, "Pop. Antiq." vol. iii. p. 60, art. "Sorcerer.")
PHALLIC SUPERSTITIONS IN EUROPE. 431
XLVII.
PHALLIC SUPERSTITIONS IX FRANCE AND OTHER
PARTS OF EUROPE.
A MONG the peasantry of Ireland there are in use certain pre-
"^*- historic arrow-heads, believed by them to be fairy darts.
" When an illness is supposed to be due to the influence of the fairies,
. . . this ' fairy dart ' ... is put into a tumbler and covered with
water, which the patient then drinks, and if the fairies are responsible
for his sickness, he at once recovers." — (" Medical Mythology of Ire-
land," Mooney, Amer. Phil. Soc, 1887.)
And in like manner, — as has already been shown of the sacred
character attaching, among the people of the far East, to water, wine,
or milk which had been poured over the lingam, — the women of
France solaced themselves with the hope that children would come to
those who drank an infusion containing scrapings from the phalli,
existing until the outbreak of the French revolution, at Puy en Yelay,
in the church of Saint Foutin, in the shrine of Saint Guerlichon, near
Bruges, in the shrine of Guignolles, near Brest ; and in that of an
ancient statue of Priapns, at Antwerp.1
1 See- Dulaure' s " Des Divinities Generatrices," Paris, 1825, pp. 271,277,278,
280, 283. He says that this vestige of phallic worship was discernible in France
"a une £poque tres-rapprochee de la notre," and that women " raclaient une
enorme branche phallique que pr^sentait la statue du saint ; elles croyaient que la
raclure enfusee dans un boisson, les rendrait fecondes."
But Davenport, who has probed deeply into the question of phallic worship,
contends that such vestiges existed in some of the communities of France, Sicily,
and Belgium, not only down to the Reformation, but even to the opening decades
of the nineteenth century. — (See Davenport, " On the Powers of Reproduction,"
London (privately printed), 1869, pp. 10-20.)
E. Payne Knight speaks of this same instance of survival at Isemia, in Sicily.
It was known at that place as late as 1805.
See also " The Masculine Cross and ancient Sex 'Worship," Sha Rocco, New
York, 1874, etc.
Dulaure, however, admits that he knew of no example in antiquity of scraping
the phallus and drinking an infusion of the powder. " L'usaae de racier le phallus
et d'avaler de cette raclure avec de l'eau, usage dont je ne connais point d'exemple
dans 1'antiquite."
Dulaure, as above, p. 300.
432 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XLVIII.
BUELESQUE SUEVIVALS.
A NEW task now presents itself, the examination into burlesque
-*"*- survivals- of rites aud usages no longer countenanced as matters
of religious importance.
Religion is not content with being tenacious of its ceremonial ; it
often goes so far as to sanctify reversions to usages and modes of
thought which have passed out of the recollection of the people ; in
doing this, it is frequently necessary that some explanation be in-
vented, as the hierophants themselves are generally ignorant of the
true reasons for their conduct ; but more ordinarily mankind accepts
and complies with ritualistic precepts without inquiry, and even with
a vague belief that the more archaic a practice may be, the more
efficacy it must necessarily have in securing protection and good
fortune.
The Hindu festival of Holi, Huli, or Hulica, familiar to most read-
ers, has thus been outlined by a recent witness as celebrated in the
provinces near Oudeypore.1 The proceedings are characterized as
saturnalia, attended with much freedom and excessive drunkenness :
" The importance of the study of popular traditions, though recog-
nized by men of science, is not yet understood by the general public.
It is evident, however, that the mental tokens -which belong to one
intellectual stock, which bear the stamp of successive ages, which con-
nect the intelligence of our day with all periods of human activity, are
1 See, in Rousselet's "India," London, 1876, pp. 173, 343. It has been identi-
fied as oiu' April Fool's Day. See in "Asiatic Researches," Calcutta, 1790, vol. ii.
p. 334 ; also, in Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," London, 1810, pp. 156, 157 ; also, the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Appleton's Encyclopedia, article "April-"
On the Sunday and Monday preceding Lent people are privileged at Lisbon
to play the fool ; it is thought very jocose to pour water on any person who
passes, or throw powder in his face ; but to do both is the perfection of wit- —
(Southey, quoted in Hone's "Every-Day Book,'' vol. i. p. 206, London, 1825.
See Brand's "Popular Antiquities," London, 1849, vol. i., p. 131, article "April
Fool's Day.")
BUKI.KSQUK SURVIVALS. 433
worthy of serious consideration. Much of this time-honored currency
is rude and shapeless, it may be ore scarcely marked by the die ; but
among the treasures silver and gold are not wanting. An American
superstition may require for its explanation reference to Teutonic my-
thology, or may be directly associated with the philosophy, mouu-
ments, and arts of Hellas. ... It is, however, now a recognized
principle that higher forms can only be comprehended by the help of
the lower forms out of which they grew. . . . The onby truly scientific
habit of mind is that wide and generous spirit of modern research
which, without disdain and without indifference, embraces all aspects
of human thought, and endeavors in all to find a whole." — (Prof. W.
W. Newell, in "Journal of American Folk-Lore, " Jan.-March, 1889.)
" It is not too much to assert, once for all, that meaningless customs
must be survivals; that they had a practical, or at least ceremonial
intention when and where they first arose ; but are now fallen iuto
absurdity from having been carried on ill a new state of society,
where their original sense has been discarded.'' — (" Primitive Cul-
ture," E. B. Tylor, New York, 1874, vol. i. p. 85.)
" I believe that no custom which we find among early races was
initiated without some very good reason why, though those who prac-
tise it may long have lost it, and even have been obliged to invent a
new one, utterly different from the original, to explain the rite which
they ignorantly practise." — (Personal letter from J. W. Kingsley,
Esq., M. D., Brome Hall, Scole, England.)
" The serious business of ancient society may be seen to sink into
the sport of later generations, and its serious belief to linger on in
nursery folk-lore, while superseded habits of old-world life may be
modified into new-world forms, still powerful for good and evil." —
("Primitive Culture," E. B. Tylor, London, 1871, vol. i. p. 15.)
And again : " Religion holds on, with the tenacity of superstition,
to all that has ever been practised." — (" Custom and Myth," Andrew
Lang, New York, 188,), p. 241 )
A brighter light will be thrown upon future investigations by re-
garding folk-lore and folk-usage, especially folk-medicine, as the crys-
talization of primordial religious thought and practice.
" It can hardly be too often repeated, since it is not yet generally
recognized, that, in spite of their fragmentary character, the popular
superstitions and customs of the peasantry are by far the fullest and
most trustworthy evidence we possess as to the primitive religion of
the Aryans. Indeed, the primitive Aryan, in all that regards his
28
434 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
meDtal fibre and texture, is not extinct. He is amongst us to this
day. The great intellectual and moral forces which have revolution-
ized the educated world, have scarcely affected the peasant. In his
inmost beliefs, he is what his forefathers were in the days when forest
trees still grew, and squirrels played on the ground where Rome and
London now stand.
" Hence every inquiry into the primitive religion of the Aryans should
either start from the superstitious beliefs and observances of the
peasantry, or should at least be constantly checked and controlled by
reference to them. Compared with the evidence afforded by living
tradition, the testimony of ancient books on the subject of ancient
religion is worth very little. For literature accelerates the advance of
thought at a rate which leaves the slow progress of opinion by word
of mouth at an immeasurable distance behind. Two or three genera-
tions of literature may do more to change thought than two or three
thousand years of traditional life. But the mass of the people, who
do not read books, remain unaffected by the mental revolution wrought
by literature ; and so it has come about that in Europe, at the present
day, the superstitious beliefs and practices which have been handed
down by word of mouth are generally of a far more archaic type
than the religion depicted in the most ancient literature of the Aryan
race." — ("The Golden Bough," James G. Frazer, M. A., London,
1890, Preface, viii, ix.)
The people of Eangoon, Siam, observe a peculiar usage at the time
of their New Year. Every man, woman, boy, or girl is armed with a
"squirt-gun," with which all people on the street are drenched.1
Elliott, apparently quoting from Zagoskin (a Russian explorer,
temp. 1843), says that the Alaskans have "entertainments" in the
" kashga." " It sometimes happens, on these occasions, that lovers
of fun sprinkle the women with oil, or with that fluid which they use
in place of soap, squirted from small bladders concealed about their
persons, and such jokes are never resented." — ("Our Arctic Province,"
Henry W. Elliott, New York, 1887, p. 392.)
" From the very beginning effigies of the most revolting indecency are
set up in the gates of the town and in the principal thoroughfares.
" Troops of men and women, wreathed with flowers and drunk with
bang, crowd the streets, carrying sacks full of a bright red vegetable
powder. With this they assail the passers-by, covering them with
1 The authority for this statement will be found in " The Press," of Philadel-
phia, Penn., copied in the " Evening Star," of Washington, July 26, 1890.
BURLESQUE SURVIVALS. 435
clouds of dust, which soon dyes their clothes a startling color. Groups
of people standing at the windows retaliate with the same projectile, or
squirt with wooden syringes red and yellow streams of water into the
streets below."
The Nautch dances reach the acme of voluptuousuess, and the ac-
companying chants are filled with suggestiveness. The author here
quoted says that Holica was the Indian Venus.
An eminent authority says that " this red powder {gidal) is a sign of
a bad design of an adulterous character. During the holi holidays the
Maharaj throws gulal on the breasts of female and male devotees, and
directs the current of some water of a yellow color from a syringe upon
the breasts of females." — (Inman, " Ancient Faiths embodied in
Ancient Names," p. 303.)
This " yellow water " may be a survival of and a refinement upon
urine. The Apaches and Navajoes, close neighbors of the Zuuis, have
had until very recently (and may still celebrate) the dance of the
Joshkan, in which clowns scatter upon the spectators, from bladders
wound round their bodies, water, said to be representative of urine.
Among the Aztecs there was a festival allowing the fullest license to
clowns, armed with bladders filled with red powder or fine pieces of
maguey paper attached by strings to short poles. With these blad-
ders all persons caught in the streets, especially women and girls, were
mercilessly buffeted. — (Sahagun, vol. ii. in Kingsborough's "Mexican
Antiquities," vol. vi. p. 33, and again vol. vii. p. 83.)
His account says that in the seventeenth month, which was called
"Tititl," and corresponded almost to our winter solstice, the Mexican
year being divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, begin-
ning with our February, the Aztec populace played a game called
" nechichiquavilo."
All the men and boys who wished to play this game made little bags
or nets, filled with the pollen of the rush, called " espadafia," or with
paper cut in fine pieces. These were attached to cords or ribbons half
a yard long, in such a manner that a blow could be struck with them.
Others made these bags like gloves, which they stuffed as above stated,
or with leaves of green maize. No one was allowed, under penalty, to
put into these bags any stones, or anything else which could hurt.
The boys at once began to play this game, in the way of a sham-
battle, hitting each other on the head, or wherever else they could.
As the fun increased the more mischievous of the boys began to beat
the young maidens passing along the street. At times three or four
436 SCATALOGIC EITES OF ALL NATIONS.
young boys would attack one girl, and beat her so hard as to weary her
aud make her cry. The more prudent of the young girls, in going from
point to point, carried a club with which to defend themselves. Some
of the boys concealed the bag, aud when any old women carelessly
approached they would suddenly begin to beat them, crying out,
•' Chichiquatzinte mautze ! " — which means, " Our mother, this is
the bag of the game ! " 1
The following is Torquemada's description : —
" In the festival in honor of the goddess Yamatecuhtli, or "principal
old woman," in the seventeenth month of the Mexican calendar, all the
people of thecity made bags after the manner of purses, and stuffed them
full of hay and straw and other things, which would have no weight
and do no harm, and, attaching them to a cord, carried them hidden
under their cloaks. "With these bags they buffeted all the women they
met on the street."2 — (Torquemada, "Mouarchia Indiana," lib. x.
cap. 29.)
He recognizes the similaritybetween this and the blind-man's-buff
games of other countries.
1 Para este juego, todos los hombres y muchachos que querian jugar hacian tale-
guillas 6 redecillos llenos de flor de las espadanaso dealgunos papelesrotos ; ataban
estos con linos eordelejos 6 cintas de media vara de largo, de tal nianera que pudiese
hacer golpe ; otros hacian a nianera de guantes las taleguillas e hinchabanlos de lo
arriba dicho 6 de ojas de maiz verde ; ponian pena a todos estos que nadie echase
piedra 6 cosa que pudiese lastimar dentro las taleguillos. Comenzaban luego los
muchachos a jugar este juego a manera de escaramuza y dabanse de talegazos en la
cabeza y por donde acertaban y de poco en poco se iban multiplicando de los mu-
chachos y los mas traviesos daban de talegazos a las mucbachas que pasaban por la
calle ; a las veces, se juntaban tres 6 quatro para dar a una de tal nianera que la
fatigaban y la hacian llorar.
Algunas muchacbas que eran mas discretas, si habian de ir a alguna parte, en-
tonces llevaban un palo u otra cosa que liiciese temer para defenderse. Algunos
muchachos escondian la talega y quando pasaba alguna mujer descuidadamente,
dabanla de talegazos y quando la daban un golpe, decian Chichiquatzinto mantze,
que quiere decir, " Madre Nuestra, es la talega de este juego." Las mugeres anda-
ban muy recatadas quando ivan a alguna parte. — (Saliagun, in " Kingsborough,"
vol. vii. p. 83.)
At the feast of the goddess Tona the same game was played. — (See idem,
vol. vi. p. 33.)
2 Hacia toda la gente de el Pueblo unas talegas, a manera de bolsas, y henehian-
les de heno y paja y otras cosas que no hacen golpe ni tienen peso y colgavanlas de
un cordel y traianlas escondidas debajo de los mantos que les Servian de capas.
Con estas talegas daban de Talegacos a todas las mugeres que encontraban por las
calles.
BURLESQUE SURVIVALS. 437
A contributor to "Asiatic Researches" calls this powder of the
Huli festival a " purple powder," aud claims that the idea is to repre-
sent the return of spring, which the Romans call " purple." '
In some parts of North America the 1st of April is observed like
Saint Valentine's Day, with this difference, that the boys are allowed
to chastise the girls, if they think fit, either with words or blows. —
(Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. i. p. 141, article "April Fool's
Day.")
A FEW REMARKS UPON THE USE OF BLADDERS IN RELIGIOUS
CEREMONIES.
Whether or not primitive man, excited by his insatiate, omnivorous
appetite for gods, under the impulses of which he deified winds, waters,
trees, and stones, aud looked with a veneration not far removed from de-
votion itself, upon the holy graals, chalices, aud other paraphernalia of
his ritual, should have associated a mysterious power with the bladders
he employed to hold his urine and ordure is a question which no one
can to-day determine.
For our own cow-worshipping Aryan ancestry bladders were a natural
means of transportiug liquids, exactly as they remain among the Apaches
and other Indian tribes of America.
Introduced of necessity iuto religious ceremonial, they would, with
the advance of years, and in spite of the improvement which might be
brought about in the domestic comfort of the people at large, gain
a certain " medicine " value, strictly parallel to that which we know
has been gained by the gourd-rattle, which, in not a few cases, has
been consulted as an oracle, and adored as a god.5
The author has observed a number of instances of the use by Sioux,
Apache, aud other Indians, of bladders tied in the hair as an " orna-
ment" long after traders had placed within reach glass beads, feathers,
and other meaus of decoration. The Hottentots kept drinking-water
in " the intestines of animals." — (Thurnberg, in Pinkerton, vol. xvi.
pp. 38, 73, 141.)
Of the Patagoniaus we are informed that " the only vessels they
use for carrying water are bladders." — (" Adventure and Beagle,"
vol. i. p. 93.)
1 R. Patterson, in "Asiatic Researches," Calcutta, 1805, voL viii. p. 78.
3 The African deity, Ohatala, is symbolized by a whitened gourd provided with
a cover, which is placed in the temples. — (" Fetichism," Rev. P. Baudin, Xew
York, 18S5, p. 14.)
438 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
We are informed that the Shamans of Alaska throw into the sea
inflated bladders and watch them sink, as a means of divination. —
(" Our Arctic Province," Elliott, p. 393.)
In some parts of rural England there were kept up even to our own
day certain feasts or ceremonies, connected with the ploughing of the
land. These " fool-plough " days varied in different sections from
early in January to Shrove Tuesday. They partook of the nature
of a frolic, the plough being driven by a clown armed with a bladder,
with which he urged his team. There were certain peculiarities con-
nected with this custom indicative of a Pagan origin. The clown
was attired as a woman, there was music, the plough was drawn
three times round a fire, the blacksmith received "sharping corn"
for sharpening the plough-irons, and the whole ended with feasting,
in which the cock figured as one of the articles of food. All this sug-
gested to the writer in Brand a relationship with the "Compitalia" of
the Eomans and "the three sacred ploughiugs" of the Athenians; also
the sacred ceremonial ploughing of the Chinese. — (Brand, " Popular
Antiquities," vol. i. pp. 505 et seq., article " Fool-Ploughs.")
Bruce describes the commander-in-chief of the Abyssinian army on
an expedition against the Gallas while in the act of making his toilet.
" A man was then finishing his head-dress by plaiting it with some of
the long and small guts of an ox, which I did not perceive had ever
been cleaned." — (Bruce, " Nile," vol. iv. p. 212.)
The Gallas of Abyssinia, upon slaughtering an ox, " hang the en-
trails round their necks, or interweave them with their hair." —
(Maltebrun, " Un. Geography," Boston, 1847, vol. ii. p. 47, article
"Abyssinia.")
Bruce describes a chief of the Gallas as having " his long hair plaited
and interwoven with the bowels of oxen, and so knotted and twisted to-
gether as to reuder it impossible to distinguish the hair from the bowels.
. . . He had likewise a wreath of guts hung about his neck, and several
rounds of the same about his middle." — (" Nile," vol. iv. p. 560.)
" Their favorite ornament is composed of the entrails of their oxen,
which, without superfluous care in cleansing them, are plaited in the
hair and tied as girdles round the waist." — (" Encyc. of Geog.," Phila-
delphia, 1855, vol. ii. p. 588, article " Abyssinia.")
" A Norwegian witch has boasted of sinking a ship by opening a bag
in which she had shut up a wind. Ulysses received the winds in a
leather bag from yEolus, king of the wiuds." — (" The Golden Bough,"
Frazer, vol. i. p. 27.)
BURLESQUE SURVIVALS. 439
All examination of the examples just adduced, as well as of those
introduced under "Cures by Transplantation," would seem to show
that bladders were used in preference to material just as available and
convenient, and that when a substitution was made it was always by a
horn or a glass, clear as the entrail which it no doubt was supposed to
resemble. The god Crepitus, as we have shown, was symbolized as a
swollen paunch. The clowns of the circuses of the present day are
armed with bladders ; but why no antiquarian has yet arisen to explain
to us.
Brand (" Popular Antiquities," vol. 1. p. 261 et seq., article "Fools")
contains no information on this point.
The use of the bladder is to be noted in the festivals of the Iuuits.
" Apres un superbe vacarme, ils suspendent a, des cordes une centaine
des vessies, prises a des animaux tons tues a, coups de fleche." —
("Les Primitifs," Reclus, p. 110, "Les Iuoits Occideutaux.")
The explanation given by Picclus is as follows : " Faut-il expliquer
que les vessies, echauffces par la flamme, symbolisent les souffles du
printemps? . . . Qu'elles symbolisent l'esprit de vie qui entre dans les
narines 1 " — (Idem.)
It may be enough to point out the care with which these bladders
must be selected ; not every bladder will do, — only those from ani-
mals killed with arrows.
440 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
XLIX.
THE WORSHIP OF COCKS AND HENS.
^*\NLY such matter has been admitted into this volume as could
^-^ prima facie be considered as having the right of entry ; the great-
est care has been taken to avoid distortion or mutilation of authorities,
and much has been excluded that might have been presented without
running a risk of being accused of unfairness.
For example, as old an authority as John de Laet calls attention to
the great prevalence of intoxication and debauchery among the Indians
of Vextipa, near Mexico, who on feast days had the ancient custom of
becoming drunk as beasts and committing enormous excesses.1 And in
like manner the first missionaries in- Canada complained of the brutal
orgies of the natives, in which, under cover of darkness and the cloak of
their superstitions, deeds were committed which the pen dared not de-
scribe. Ample reference to these has been preserved in the Jesuit rela-
tions, and in the exact and interesting American treatises dependent so
largely upon them.2 It is more likely, however, that the Huron and
Algonkin saturnalia were, in general terms, scenes of promiscuous
licentiousness.
Only two authorities can be cited, Fathers Le Jeune and Sagard, who
instance the use of human urine or ordure under spiritual direction ; all
others leave the inference that the bacchanalia of which they were the
reluctant and disgusted observers had no other peculiarity than that of
unrestrained sexual intercourse.
It would be hard to find a better example of the tenacity of super-
stition than that which the subjoined extract from the "Evening
Star," of Washington, D. C, shows as existing under our own noses.
1 John de Laet, lib. vi. chap. vii. p. 202.
2 See Francis Parkman's "Jesuits in North America," the works of John Gil-
mary Shea, and Kipps "Jesuit Missions."
THE WORSHIP OF COCKS AND HENS. 441
" A CURIOUS HUNGARIAN SUPERSTITION.
"A correspondent of the ' Philadelphia Press,' at Pottsville, Pa., tells
of a curious scene he witnessed in the Hungarian quarter. A number
of children were running round barefooted, beating tin pans and boxes.
In the midst of the circle they were describing was a live baby buried
up to the neck in the cold ground with a shawl wound round its throat
for protection. It was learned that the object of putting the baby in
this peculiar position was to cure it of a skin disease, the Huns having
the same faith in the curative properties of mother earth that is char-
acteristic of many savage tribes.
"While the child was thus experiencing the medicinal virtues of the
earth packed rouud its body, the boys beat upon the pans in order to
frighten away the evil spirit that had caused the disease."
A retrospective glance at the long list of excremeutitious remedies
collected shows that both the disease to be treated and the remedy by
which the cure was to be effected were regarded as entirely beyond the
domain of human science. Even in these cases, where medicines, pure
and simple, as we should now recognize them, were to be administered,
there was a complication of mysterious mummery and ceremony, the
first vestige of the former power of the medicine-man. Thus felons
could be treated by tracing a circle round them with a dead man's
bone ; but the circle, we should remember, was pre-eminently the line
of magic.1
Teeth were worn as amulets, or given as medicine in disease, but it
was essential that they should be drawn from the jaw before the burial
of the body ; or that they should be the first shed by a child ; that
they should be those of a man who had died a violent death ; or that
they should be caught before they touched the ground.
If they were not to be used immediately, they were not to be carried
about, but were to be buried in the bark of a tree.
The skull of a man was a remedy for the diseases of men only ; that
of a woman, for those of the female sex.
There were combinations of numbers ; no medicine was to be admin-
1 Pliny contains a number of references to plants to which mystic properties
were attached, which could only be dug up after a circle had been traced about
them with a sword, prayers recited in certain postures, etc. — (See among others,
the " Mandragora," in lib. xxv. c. 94.)
442 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
istercd an even number of times; of color1 based upon the doctrine of
signatures which taught among other things, that red medicines cured
red diseases, and saffron-tinted ones, those of the jaundice type. There
were iron-clad formulae for gathering medicinal plants in which the
hour of the day, the season of the year, the age of the moon, the posi-
tion of the planets, the hand to be used in plucking, the silence to be
observed, were all sedulously inculcated and enjoined.
There were charms and counter-charms, such as the Dea-soil and
the Badershin of the Druids, in which the same magical incantation,
used in different manners, i. e. going with or against the sun, induced
contrary results.
Traces of all these superstitious ideas are to be looked for in2 close
1 Copious references to color-symbolism will be found in the works of Von Hel-
mont (p. 1060); Frazer, "Totemism ;" J. Owen Dorsey; Dr. W. J. Hoffman ; Black,
"Folk-Medicine;" Pettigrew, "Medical Superstitions;" Andrew Lang, "Myth,
Ritual, and Religion ; " Garrick Mallery, and many others ; also in an article en-
titled "Notes on the Cosmogony and Theogony of the Mojaves of the Colorado
River," published in the "Journal of American Folk-Lore," July-September, 1S89,
by the author of this volume. In the last it is shown that the idea in the aborigi-
nal mind is that each color is a medicine, and that the rainbow, being a combina-
tion of them all, is a panacea ; but it should be pointed out that, even in the days
of Dr. Joseph Lanzoni (1694) there were some bold medical scholars who openly
derided such notions as absurd and irrational.
2 There can scarcely be a doubt that pharmacy was, in its incipiency, distinctly
and unequivocally religious in character. Grimm is full of the matter. He tells us
that "the culling and fetching of herbs had to be done at particular times and ac-
cording to long-established forms. . . . Shortly before sunrise when the day is
young. . . . The viscum was gathered at new moon, Prima Luna. . . . Some had
to be gathered in darkness, others plucked by the light of the moon, generally the
new moon ; others by a person fasting ; others before hearing thunder that year.
... In digging up an herb, the Roman custom was first to pour mead and honey
round it, as if to propitiate the earth, then cut round the root with a sword, look-
ing towards the east (or west), and the moment it is pulled out, to lift it on high
without letting it touch the ground. ... A great point was to guard against cold
iron touching the root ; hence gold or red-hot iron was used in cutting. ... In
picking or pulling up, the operator used the left hand in certain cases ; he had to do
it unbelted and unshod, and to state for whom and for what purpose it was done."
Grimm complains of the scantiness of German tradition on this point ; yet, he finds
that the "hyoscyamus," or henbane, had to be taken from the ground by a naked
virgin, using the little finger of the right hand and standing on the right foot. The
French formulae for such purposes require : " Quelques uns pour se garantir de
maletices ou de charmes vont cueillir de grand matin, a jeun, sans avoir lave' letirs
mains, sans avoir prie Dieu, sans parler a personne, et sans saluer personne en leur
chenrin, une certaine plante, et la mettent eusuite sur la personne maleficiee ou
THE WORSHIP OF COCKS AND HENS. 443
association with the administration of excrementitious remedial agents,
or the incantations in which such agents appear.
The method of curing incontinence of urine by micturating into a
dog kennel probably belongs to the class of the Druidic Badershin or
"Widershin, to which also we might be able to refer, did we know more
about it, the very ancient and widely-disseminated charact or charm,
"Diabolus effodiat," etc.
Thus, in making use of lion-dung, it was recommended that it should
be that of a lioness which had brought forth young ; and, to continue
the subject, we find the dung of black cows, the dung of bulls and
cows " collected in the mouth of May," " water of cow-dung collected
in May and June," etc., specially enjoined in the compounding of
prescriptions.
Questions of the deepest interest spring up like weeds as we re-
examine our text. Of these, it is impossible to enumerate all, or to
ensorcelee. lis portent sur eux une racine de chicoree, qu'ils out touehe a genoux
avec de For etde 1' argent le jourde la Nativite de Saint Jean Baptisteun pen avaut
le soleil leve, et qu'ils ont ensnite arrachee de terre avec un ferremeut et beaucoup
de ceremonies, apres l'avoir exorcisee avec l'epee de Judas Machabee." The herb
was to be "neither fretted nor squashed." "The Romans had a strange custom of
laying a sieve in the road, and using the stalks of grass that grew up through it
for medical purposes." (Grimm, "Teut. Mythol." vol. iii. p. 1195 et seq.) He
fully describes the ceremony for gathering the mandrake, and also refers to the
mistletoe, but adds nothing to the information in these pages. In many of the
prescriptions given by Marcellus, which prescriptions were generally of a magical
character (tempus, a.d. 3S0), there are injunctions to "observe chastity." — (See
" Saxon Leechdoras," lib. i. pp. 20, 29.)
Again, in "Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 11, we learn that certain medicinal
plants were to be pulled in a prescribed manner, the name of the patient to be mur-
mured at the same moment (quoting from Pliny, lib. xxi., xxii. ; again, idem, vol. i.
p. 14, quoting Pliny, lib. xii. c. 16.)
The herb mandrake could not be pulled for medicinal purposes except by a pure
man. " Its virtue is so mickle and famous that it will immediately flee from an un-
clean man " (idem, vol. i. p. 245) ; again, in gathering the periwinkle, " when thou
shalt pluck this wort, thou shalt be free from every uncleanness" (vol. i. p. 313).
The belief in regard to the manner of pulling the mandrake exists among the
Turks : "The pacha told me of a curiosity to be seen at Orfa. . . . This curiosity
consisted of two small figures, made of a peculiar shrub, partly trained and partly
twisted and partly cut into the form of a man and woman, very rudely done, and
stained over to give them the appearance of having grown in that shape. . . . The
inhabitants, in order to obtain them, tied a dog by a string to each figure, and then
went a long distance off. As soon as the dog pulled the string, and drew the crea-
ture out of the ground, the noise it made killed the dog." — ("Assyrian Discov-
eries," George Smith, New York, 1876, p. 161.)
444 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
elaborate these remarks into a disquisition upon religio-medical botany ;
one or two, however, will be named. Why was hyoscyamus (lien-
bane) added to human ordure and human mine for the frustration of
witchcraft? Was it because this plant was able to kill the chicken-
god sacred to so many Europeau peoples, and still to be detected upon
the spires of our churches? Was the chickeu-god, or to adopt modern
language, was the god of whom the chicken was the symbol, friendly
to witches? Being one of the principal deities of a supplanted cultus,
he must necessarily have been the power, or one of the powers, invoked
by the witches who were the secret adherents of the old order of thiugs
spiritual.
Again, we read that in treating the bewitched, their limbs were
bathed in their own urine ; to which, Frommann says, some added
aaafoetida and others garlic ; but assafcetida was called " merde du Dia-
ble." (" Bib. Scat." p. 128.) Was this fetid gum sacred to some god,
and was this dung-god, or were dung-gods in general, the powers to be
invoked for rendering nugatory the assaults of witches ?
In our quotations we have shown that, in the opinion of old authors
nothing equalled human ordure for baffling witches, and Luther has
been cited as expressing the belief that Satan fled in dismay from hu-
man flatulence.
This belief has been transplanted to American soil with the German
immigrants settled in the State of Pennsylvania.
Hoffman speaks of a " quack " who gave a credulous dupe " some
charms and vile-smelling herbs, which he was directed to burn in his
house so as to drive out the evil and remove the visitor " (i. e. the spirit
which was troubling the dupe). — (" Folk-Med. of the Peun'a Ger-
mans," in Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. 1889.)
A marked peculiarity of the list of animals is the absence of those
belonging to the fauna of the New World ; there is no reference to the
excrement of the turkey, a bird unknown to the nations migrating into
Europe ; but there are to be found the names of nearly all the birds
and beasts known to Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Celtic, or Teutonic
races, with, however, some notable exceptions ; tiiere is no mention of
the excreta of the bear, the swan, the wren, the parrot, and a few
others ; the complete list contained in this work is repeated for
convenience : Hare, camel, goat, wild goat, bull, cow and calf, wolf,
lien, chickens and cock, boar, wild and tame, horse, ass, hippopotamus,
lynx, badger, cuckoo, swallow, cat, hawk, mouse, peacock, pigeon, do-
mestic, wood-pigeon, turtle dove, raven, sparrow, hedge-hog, dog, ring-
THE WORSHIP OF COCKS AHD HEN'S. 445
Jove, mule, weasel, stork, vulture, crocodile, starling, eagle, owl,
elephant, goose, lizard, rat, duck, kid, chameleon, quail, kite, rabbit,
deer, magpie, crow, ape, hyena, reindeer, fox, lion, leopard.
A closer examination will discover that the ordure and urine so
prescribed were not to be taken indiscriminately from each and every
animal, but that each was assigned as a remedy appropriate for some
special physical disturbance.
Unfortunately, modern knowledge of the medical lore, of the botan-
ical, mineralogical, and chemical attainments and hagiology of the
ancients is not so thorough that we can venture, with the positiveness
warranted by the suspicion to which a close study of this subject gives
rise, to assert that the duug or urine of a giveu animal was most suit-
able to palliate the pangs of the disease traceable to the offended dig-
nity of the deity of which the particular animal was the representative
or symbol ; but it is a fact deserving of scrutiny that such au associa-
tion is unmistakably indicated in a number of cases.
Pliny says that goat-dung could be applied with benefit to ulcers
upon the generative organs. Was not the goat sacred to Pan (i. e.,
was not Pan himself, in primitive days, the deified goat) ? And was
not Pan the god to whose care the generative organs were, under
certain circumstances, confided 1
When the feet of travellers became blistered, they were bathed
with the urine of asses. "Was the ass, the burden-bearer, at any time,
or in any place under the domination of the Romans, regarded as the
god of travellers 1 Fosbroke says, " An ass carried the utensils and
statues in the sacrifices of Cybele and at the birth of Bacchus, the god
newly born, but he was only sacrificed to Mars or Priapus." — ("Encyc-
lopedia of Antiquities," London, 1843, vol. ii. p. 1009.)
Pliny also prescribed asses' dung for uterine troubles, — a clear
recognition of the animal's priapic association.
Hippopotamus-dung was given as a remedy for fever and ague.
This monster pachyderm lives in swamps, which are the hotbeds of
malaria. By a mistaken analogy, the animal would have been cred-
ited with the origin of the disease always to be dreaded by intruders
upon its lair.
Without desiring to enter into unnecessary controversy upon the
meaning of terms, it would seem to be perfectly reasonable to assert
that the majority of the deities of paganism had been zoomorphic
before man's increasing intellectuality anthropomorphized them, and
relegated the animal first to the subordinate position of being the
446 SCA.TALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
head or limbs of the god, and then to the still more ancillary one of
being simply the companion or symbol.
To consider an animal a god, the messenger, attendant, companion,
or representative of that god ; to offer it up as the most delectable
sacrifice to that deity, and afterwards restrict the oblation to a part
only of the animal, such as its horns, hoofs, excreta, — are all links in
the same psycho-religious chain of reasoning.
Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen shrewdly observes, " There seems to be the
best of reason for believing that, to seek the origin of the popular
delusion concerning the curative properties of certain animal excreta,
we must study the mythology of our long-ago Aryan ancestors."
And again : " It has often happened that substances, as well as
ceremonies, which originally had a religious signification, in later
ages degeuerated into fancied cures for diseases ; so it is more than
probable that the employment of animal excreta as remedies among
the less intelligent classes of Europe, in both earlier and later times,
as well as in our own newest offshoot from the Indo-European stem,
is a survival of early Aryan religious observance." — ("Animal and
Plant Lore," iu Popular Science Monthly, Xew York, September,
1888.)
" Car, dans la conception vraiment orthodoxe du sacrifice, l'hostie,
quelle soit homme, femme on vierge, agneau ou genisse, coq on
colombe, represente la divinite elle-meme." — "(" Les Primitifs," Reclus,
p. 366.)
" Our general ignorance of the popular superstitions and customs of
the ancients has already been confessed." — ("'The Golden Bough,"
Frazer, vol. i. p. 363.)
" Frazer's remarks make very interesting reading in support of the
theory of Zootheistic pharmacy. He not only shows that the animals
enumerated in this chapter were the deities in charge of the corn, rye,
and other cereals, but that to them recourse was had for the cure of
wounds, hurts, and aches happening to the reapers during harvest.
In one example the cat which is introduced into the field is made to
lick the laborer's wounds; in another, the goat — which is decked
with ribbons, and afterwards killed with much ceremony, and eaten at
the end of the harvest — has its skin converted into a cloak, 'which tha
farmer is required to put over his shoulders during the coming har-
vest . . . but if a reaper gets pains in his back, the farmer gives him
the goat-skin to wear." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 16.)
"Amongst the animals whose forms the corn-spirit is supposed to
THE •WORSHIP OF COCKS ADD HENS. 447
take, are the wolf, dog, hare, cock, goose, cat, goat, cow (ox) , bull, pig,
and horse. (Idem, vol. ii. p. 1.) "Other animal forms assumed by
the corn-spirit are the stag, roe, sheep, bear, ass, fox, mouse, stork,
swan, and kite." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 33.)
Here we have pretty nearly all our list of animals, and the excre-
ment of every one here mentioned has been and is used in the pre-
scriptions of folk-medicine, excepting the excreta of the bear and
swan.
"Remembering that in European folk-lore the pig is a common
embodiment of the corn-spirit, we may now ask, May not the pig,
which was so closely associated with Demeter, be nothing but the god-
dess herself in animal form ? The pig was sacred to her ; iu art she
was represented carrying or accompanied by a pig ; and the pig was
regularly sacrificed in her mysteries, the reason assigued being that
the pig injures the corn, and is therefore an enemy of the goddess.
But after an animal has been conceived as a god, or a god as an ani-
mal, it sometimes happens, as we have seen, that the god sloughs off
his animal form, and becomes purely anthropomorphic ; and that then
the animal, which at first had been slain in the character of the god,
comes to be the victim offered to the god, on the ground of its hostility
to the deity ; in short, that the god is sacrificed to himself, on the
ground that he is his own enemy. ... As men emerge from savagery,
the tendency to anthropomorphize or humanize their divinities gains
strength."— ("The Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 3G0.)
" A man would eat freely of what was regarded as the incarnation
of the god of another man, but the incarnation of his own particular
god he would consider it death to injure or eat. The god was sup-
posed to avenge the insult by taking up his abode in that person's
body, and causing to generate there the very thing which he had
eaten, until :t produced death." — ("Samoa," Turner, p. 17.)
"The ram was Amnion himself. On the monuments, it is true,
Amnion appears in semi-human form, with the body of a man, and the
head of a ram. But this only shows that he was in the usual chrys-
alis state through which beast-gods regularly pass before they emerge
as full-fledged anthropomorphic gods." — (" The Golden Bough," Frazer,
vol. ii. p. 93.)
" Each god has his favorite animal, which is dedicated to him, and
serves him as messenger." — (" Fetichism," Baudin, p. 68.)
To write what may be designated the hagiology of animal life, as
known to the ancients, would be impossible. Our knowledge is too
448 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
fragmentary and too confused, from the inextricable blending of the
ideas of different races and cults, due to the conquests by and the
subversion of the Roman empire, when victor and vanquished recip-
rocally exchanged gods, or added to the attributes of the victorious
deities those of the defeated.
Religion, in the last years of the Roman empire, was a kaleidoscopic
jumble of the tenets and rituals of many races, adopting without
caring to fully understand, whatever struck the fancy in the religion
of their neighbors.
Hence it is impossible to demonstrate, what at first sight seemed to
be an easy task, that the excreta of any particular animal was applied
in the treatment of the diseases over which the god to whom the ani-
mal was assigned stood guard. We are not absolutely without light
upon the subject, — just enough to discover that no animal was insig-
nificant enough to be absolutely without adoration, but not sufficientlv
clear to define exactly what functions each quadruped or bird god
exercised.
" The representation of the devil in the shape of a he-goat goes back
to a remote antiquity. What can have given it such a vigorous
growth among heretics and witches ? The witches all imagine their
master as a black he-goat, to whom, at festival-gatherings, they pay
divine honors; conversely, the white goat atoned for and defeated
diabolic influence. ... In oaths and curses of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, the he-goat apes the true god." (Grimm, "Teu-
tonic Mythology," vol. iii. p. 395.) " The devil, in retiring, is com-
pelled unawares to let his foot be seen." (Idem, p. 994.) "A kobold
(horse-sprite) is also horse-footed. ... To the water-sprite, the whole
or half of a horse's figure is attributed. . . . That is why horses are
sacrificed to rivers. ... A British demon, Grant, . . . shewed him-
self as a foal. . . . Loki changed himself into a mare. . . . The
devil appears as a horse in the stones of Zeno and Brother Rausch.
... In legends, black steeds fetch away the damned. . . . Next to
the goat, . . . the boar is a devil's animal." (Idem, pp. 994—996.)
"A soul-snatching wolf, the devil was already to the fathers." (Idem,
p. 996.) "A canine conformation of the devil is supported by many
authorities." (Idem, p. 996.) "Foremost among birds comes the
raven, whose form the devil is fond of assuming." (Idem, p. 997.)
" Within the last few centuries only I find the vulture put for the
devil. . . . Still more frequently the cuckoo." (Idem, p. 997.)
"Another bird whose figure is assumed is the cock." (Idem, p. 997),
THE -WORSHIP OF COCKS AND HEXS. 449
" When stag-beetles aud dung-beetles are taken as devils, ... it gives
assurance of a heathen point of view." — (p. 999.)
"In Norway, lambs and kids, mostly black ones, were offered to the
water-sprite." — (Idem, p. 1009.)
" It is a natural and well-known fact, that the gods of one nation
become the devils of their conquerors or successors." — (Black, "Folk-
Medicine," p. 12.)
Gladiators wore camel's dung as a charm ; it is not at all unlikely
that to the Bedouin nomad the " ship of the desert " was the god of
fortitude.
Fosbroke says that it was the "symbol of Arabia." — (" Antiquities,"
p. 1011.)
The sacredness of the domestic cattle in India and elsewhere is too
well known to require remark ; so is that of the crocodile in parts of
ancient Egypt.
The hare was sacred in China, and is as sacred to-day to certain
tribes of American Indians as it was to the Britons when Boadicea
drew one from her bosom to consult as an omen before joining battle
with the Roman legions.
The rabbit and hare figured upon ancient Spanish coins. — (Fos-
broke, " Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 1022.)
The dung of hawks, eagles, and vultures was administered to expel
the foetus from the womb. This may have been on the principle of
similia similibus, because these rapacious birds tore the young of other
birds from their nests and devoured them. However, the eagle was
worshipped by the Romans, Persians, and Babylonians, upon whose
standards it perched. — (See Fosbroke, "Antiquities," vol. ii. pp. 1024,
1025, article " Eagle.")
" It was the common symbol of Jupiter." — (Idem.) ■
The cat was a moon-goddess symbol to the Egyptians, as well as to
many others. — (Idem, p. 1011.)
The dog was sacred to Mercury as being the protector of shepherds.
— (Idem, p. 1012.)
The dove, as well known, was one of the symbols of Venus.
The dove was also worshipped by the Assyrians. — (Idem, p. 1024.)
The stork "accompanies filial piety . . . upon coins." — (Idem,
vol. i. p. 215.)
The swallow was the emblem of Isis. — (Idem, p. 216.)
The ancient Britons, the English down to modern days, the ancient
Romans, the Hungarians, the Scotch, and many other nations, drew
29
450 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
omens from the crossing of a man's path by a hare. It is related of
Queen Boadicea that before joining battle with the Romans she drew
from her bosom a hare, which she released, and from its gambols the
priests drew the augury that success was to rest with her. — (See
in Brand, " Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. pp. 201 et seq., article
" Hare, Wolf, or Sow.")
Says Plinius : " There must be something in the general persuasion
that after seeing a hare a man is good-looking for nine days." —
(" Saxon Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 14.)
" The sun was represented by the Persians under the form of a lion,
which they called Mithra ; and his priests were called lions, and the
priestesses hyenas." — (Fosbroke, "Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 1020.)
The hyena, according to Pliny, was an especially "magic" animal.
— (Lib. xxviii.)
The ape was " worshipped in Egypt, and is now in India." — (Fos-
broke, " Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 1008.)
" The Greeks of Pythsecusa worshipped this animal " (monkey). —
(Idem, p. 1020.)
The wolf. " The Hebrews venerated this animal." — (Idem,
p. 1023.)
The wolf was " consecrated to Apollo." — (Idem.)
The ancient belief all over Europe was that it was lucky to have
one's path crossed by a wolf. This corresponds to the idea of the
Apache in regard to the bear. — (See Brand, " Popular Antiquities,"
vol. iii. p. 202, article " Hare, Wolf, or Sow.")
The Irish veneration for the wolf is well known.
The lynx "accompanied Bacchus." — (Fosbroke, "Antiquities,"
vol. ii. p. 1020.)
The pig was " sacrificed in the Eleusinian mysteries." — (Idem,
p. 1021.)
The cow, among the Egyptians, "was the symbol of Yenus." —
(Idem, p. 1011.)
The elephant was "peculiar to the cars of Bacchus." — (Idem,
p. 1014.)
The goat. " Maimonides says . . . that the Zabii worshipped
demons under the figure of goats." — (Idem, vol. ii. p. 1015.)
" Steeds were consecrated to the sun." — (Idem, p. 1016.)
The crow, " anciently the symbol of Yenus," was "superseded by
the owl."— (Idem, p. 1024.)
The cock was " the symbol of courage, . . . consecrated to Mars ;
THE WORSHIP OF COCKS AND HENS. 451
also to Minerva, to Belloua, to Mercury, to Esculapius." — (Idem,
p. 1029.)
A flock of geese was kept on the Capitoline Hill in memory of the
story that they had saved Rome, — a story which it is safe to say had
no foundation in fact.
The raven " was the ensign of the Danes." — (Idem, p. 1030.)
" So revered is he (the fox) that no place in a Mantclmrian temple
is too high for him." — (H. E. M. James, "The Long AVhite Moun-
tain," London, 1888, p. 190.)
" The serpent also is greatly feared and worshipped ; so is the hare."
— (Idem, p. 192.)
The peacock was sacred to Juno, whose car was drawn by those
birds. Pliny says that the peacock was reported to swallow its own
excrement, as if envying man the possession of a treasure so precious.
When the dung of the peacock was administered in epilepsy, vertigo,
etc., the medicine was to be taken from the new moon to the full.
Juno was a lunar deity.
" It was an ancient and wide-spread custom in Europe to bestow
names of honor on these three" (bear, wolf, and fox). — (Grimm,
"Teutonic Mythology," vol. ii. p. 6G7.)
"The Gypsies call the bear 'vieux,' or 'grand-pere.' " — (Idem,
foot-note, quoting Victor Hugo's " Notre Dame de Paris.")
The blood of a hare was regarded as one of the finest remedies for
erysipelas and bloody flux, and this by a certain " sympathetic power."
A towel dipped in hare's blood and allowed to dry was kept to be
touched to an epileptic patient. — (See Von Helmont, "Orotrika,"
English translation, London, 1662, pp. 114, 475.)
The Ostaiks of Siberia " regardent comme sacrc l'arbre ou un aigle
a fait sa ponte plusieurs annees de suite ; et ils ont aussi beaucoup
d'egards pour cette aigle. On ne peut les oflenser plus cruellement
qu'en tuant cette aigle ou en dctruisant son nid." — ("Voyages de
Pallas," vol. iv. pp. 81, 82.)
The very name of owl (googue) was considered unlucky by the
Abyssiuians for use as the watchword, although we are told that it
was so used. — (See Bruce, " Nile," vol. iv. p. 69S.)
That a belief in the sinister character of the hooting of the owl by
night prevailed all over Europe, especially among the Piomans, in the
period of their greatest civilization, and that this credulity was trans-
mitted down almost to our own times, see in Brand, " Popular
Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 206 et seq., article " Owl." He quotes from
452 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Suetonius, Pliny, Ovid, Lncan, Claudia, and from various old Euglisb
authors, — "The cryinge of the owle by night betokeueth deathe, as
divinours eonjeote and deme," and
" Then screech-owls croak upon the chimney-tops
It 's certain then you of a corse shall hear."
In Egypt, " it is said that in whatever house a cat died all the
family shaved the eyebrows." — (Idem, vol. iii. p. 38, article
" Sorcery.")
" In the earliest period the horse seems to have been the favorite
animal for sacrifice." — (" Tent. Mythol.," Grimm, vol. i. p. 47.)
The crow was always a bird of bad omen among the Romans. —
(See Brand, "Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 213, article "The
Crow.")
Roman magicians asserted " that the heart of a horned owl applied
to the left breast of a woman, while asleep, will make her disclose all
her secret thoughts. . . . Persons who have it about them in battle
will be sure to display valor;" but "it was ominous to see the bird
itself." — (Pliny, lib. xxix, c. 26.)
The crocodile seems to take in Borneo the place occupied so gen-
erally elsewhere by the serpent ; although we know that in Central
America the alligator was revered, and along the Nile in many dis-
tricts the crocodile. — (See Bock's " Head-Hunters of Borneo," London,
1881, passim.)
"The hare, which shares with the cat the reputation of being the
familiar of witches, has naturally some virtues attributed to it. Thus
that the right forefoot worn in the pocket will infallibly ward off rheu-
matism is a common belief in Northamptonshire, and generally over
England." (" Folk-Medicine," Black, p. 154.) The Chinese say that
a hare sits at the foot of the cassia-tree in the moon pounding out
the drugs of which the elixir of immortality is compounded. In a poem
of Tu-fu, a bard of the T'ang dynasty, the fame of this hare is
sung, —
" The frog is not drowned in the river ;
The medicine hare lives forever."
" The devil's mark was said to sometimes resemble the impression of
a hare's foot. . . . Seeing a hare was thought in Ireland to produce a
hare-lip in the child to be born ; and, as a charm, the woman who
unfortunately saw the hare was recommended to make a small rent
immediately in some part of her dress." — (Idem, p. 155.)
THE WORSHIP OF COCKS AND HENS. 453
" It is held extremely unlucky, says Grose, to kill a cricket, a ladybug,
a swallow, martiu, robin redbreast, or wren, — perhaps from the idea of
its being a breach of hospitality, all these birds and insects alike taking
refuge in our houses. . . . Persons killing any of the above-mentioned
birds or insects, or destroying their nests, will infallibly, within the course
of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune.
... On the contrary, it was deemed lucky to have martins or swal-
lows build their iiests in the eaves of a house or in the chimneys. . . .
Its being accounted unlucky to destroy swallows is probably a pagan
relic. We read in jElian that these birds were sacred to the penates
or household gods of the ancients, and therefore were preserved. They
were honored anciently as the nuncios of the spring. The Rhodians
are said to have had a solemn anniversary song to welcome in the
swallow. Anacreon's ode to that bird is well known." Brand also
alludes to the still surviving omens attaching to the swallow, — such
as " the swallow falling down the chimney," and others. — (" Popular
Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 193.)
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN SPORT OF " CORRER EL GALLO " AND THE ENG-
LISH PASTIME OF "THROWING AT ' SH ROVE-COCKS. ' "
The Spaniards brought with them to the New World a cruel form of
sport, which consisted in burying a cock or hen in the earth up to its
neck, and then allowing the young men of the village to mount their
horses, and charging down at full speed upon the hapless bird, reach
down from their saddles and endeavor to seize it and wring its neck.
This sport (as seen by the author in the Indian Pueblo of Santo Do-
mingo, New Mexico, in 1881, and described by him in "The Sn. e
Dance of the Moquis " ) is evidently a distorted form of the sacrifice of
the chicken deity, which is to be discovered in mauy parts of Europe,
always under the guise of brutal sport.
In England there was a modification. A goose was hung up by the
feet, and then the villagers ran and attempted to seize its head, which
was finally pulled off. There was still another of the same series in
which a cat was put in a barrel, and the barrel was then beaten to
pieces. — (See Brand, " Popular Antiquities," vol. iii. p. 40, article
" Sorcery.")
There was another English pastime, " Throwing at Shrove-Cocks,"
much of the same nature. — (See idem, vol i. p. 101, article "Ash-
Wednesday," and p. 72, article " Shrove -Tuesday.")
454 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Grimm describes the "heathen custom of tying cocks to the tops
of holy -trees," which prevailed very generally over Europe in Pagan
times. " The Wends erected cross-trees, but still secretly heathen at
heart, they contrived to fix at the very top of the poles a weather-
cock."— (Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology," London, vol. ii. p. 672.)
" In parts of Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Picardy, the reapers
place a live cock in the corn which is to be cut last, and chase it over
the field, or bury it up to the neck in the ground ; afterwards they
strike oil' its neck with a sickle or a scythe." — (" The Golden Bough,"
Prazer, vol. ii. p. 9. He gives still other examples from Westphalia,
Transylvania, etc.)
See also Grose, " Dictionary of Buckish Slang," London, 1811, article
" Goose Riding," in which it is stated that this game was practised
" in Derbyshire within the memory of persons now living."
THE SCARAB^EUS OF EGYPT.
The radical divergence of opinion among scholars as to the basis of
the veneration accorded by the inhabitants of the Nile delta to the
scarabreus has been an occasion of much perplexity; no two authors
can be found to agree upon the subject.
In the absence of anything which can bo considered conclusive, it is
not worth while to more than allude to the fact that it was the dung-
beetle to which this adoration was manifested, and possibly because it
associated itself with material so intimately connected with the living
organism.
The dung-beetle " scarabteus . . . worn as an amulet for the cure
of fever." — (Pliny, lib. xxx. cap. 30.)
See also " Saxou Leechdoms," vol. i. p. 16, in which the preceding
paragraph from Pliny is quoted.
" To the Egyptians the beetle (scarabams) was sacred, being an
emblem of inmost life and mysterious self-generation. They believed
that he proceeded out of matter which he rolled into globules and
buried in manure." — (Grimm, "Teut. Mythol.," vol. ii. p. 692.)
" The Thebaic beetle, the first animal that is seen alive after the
Nile retires from the land." Bruce thinks that the scarabseus was
the symbol of " the land which had been overflowed and from which
the water had soon retired, and has nothing to do with the resurrection
or immortality, neither of which were at that time in contemplation." —
(" Nile," Bruce, Dublin, 1790, vol. i. p. 129.)
THE WORSHIP OF COCKS AND HENS. 455
Sir Samuel Baker says : " It appears shortly after the commence-
ment of the wet season, its labors continuing until the cessation of the
rains, at which time it disappears. Was it not worshipped by the
ancients as the harbinger of the high Nile 1 " — (" The Albert Nyanza,"
pp. 240, 241.)
" On sait que l'escarbot ou fouille-merde, qui nait dedans et qui s'en
uourrit, etait pour les Egyptiens l'image du monde, du soleil, d'Isis,
d'Osiris." — (" Bib. Scat.," pp. 1 and 2, quoting Pliny, lib. xxx. cap. 11 ;
lib. ii. cap. 30 ; Kircher, Prodrom. Egypt, cap. ult.)
The beetle was not killed by the peasantry of Ireland, according to
Lady Wilde. See her book, page 175.
Scholars will understand that the remarks submitted upon the vene-
ration attaching to all these animals have been introduced merely as
aids to memory in the consideration of this matter, and not as com-
pletely covering all that could be advanced on the subject.
456 SCATALOGIC BITES OF ALL NATIONS.
THE PEESISTENCE OF FILTH REMEDIES
A NOTHER feature deserving of attention is the persistence with
"^■■*- which the same remedies have been perpetuated through the cen-
turies; from Hippocrates, perhaps, certainly from Pliny to Sextus
Placitus, then to " Saxou Leechdoms," and thence to the authorities
prepared immediately after the discovery of printing, there is a trans-
mittal of the same prescriptions for the same diseases.
Avicenna, the Arabian, has unmistakably drawn the inspiration of
his knowledge from the broken fountains of Latin-Christian civiliza-
tion.
EPILEPSY.
The dung of the peacock was one of the favorite prescriptions for
the alleviation of epilepsy, the disease so pre-eminently of divine origin
that by the Romans it was termed the Divine Disease ' (Morbus sacer).
Epilepsy was likewise called the '' comitial disease," because, accord-
ing to the different authorities consulted upon the subject, the moment
a Roman was attacked by it, the " comitia," if in session, were dis-
solved. The "comitia . . . were the assemblies of the clans for de-
liberating upon such important matters as the appointment of judges,
etc." 2 Of exactly what transpired afterwards we have no knowledge ; it
1 Hippocrates did not believe that epilepsy was a '.' divine " disease, sent by the
gods ; such an idea was, in his opinion, fostered by quacks for personal advantage.
— (See the edition of his work by Francis Adams, Sydenham Society, London,
1849.)
" Nothing could tend more to retard the progress of medicine, and paralyze all
efforts for its improvement, than the opinion, once so generally entertained, of the
celestial origin of disease, which, if admitted, appears necessarily to demand divine
interposition for its relief. Religion and medicine were both brought into contempt
by the adoption of sacrifices and incantations and the mercenary practices of the
priests to insure intercession with the gods." — (" Medic. Superstitions," Pettigrew,
p. 45.)
2 Epilepsy was called the comitial disease " because the comitia were prorogued
in the event of any ominous case of this disorder." — (White-Ridley, Latin- English
Diet. See also Lempriere's " Classical Dictionary," article "Comitia.")
THE PERSISTENCE OF FILTH REMEDIES. 457
is most likely that the assembled clans devoted themselves to supplicat-
ing the gods to take mercy upon an afflicted kinsman. It is not at all
beyond the limits of probability that the patient was, in early days,
sacrificed to appease the wrath of the deity inflicting the punishment,
or disease as we should designate it. This, at least, is the only rational
inference to be drawn from the action taken with the clothing worn
during the fit, and the excrement voided at the same time, both of
which, as we have seen, were burned, — a reminiscence of the earlier
practice when such a fate was meted out to the victim himself.
But we do find that the belief in transference or transplantation was
one of the underlying principles of all medical practice in ancient and
mediaeval times ; and, by a reference to the examples cited, it will be
noted that special stress was laid upon the employment of clippings of
the hair or nails of the patient, or his urine, ordure, or, in rarer in-
stances, his saliva or perspiration ; these were to be placed in egg-shells
and then buried in ant-hills, thrown into fish-ponds, given to dogs or
chickens, or thrown out in the cross-roads, in the hope that some trav-
eller, impelled by curiosity, would pick up the strange package and
with it take the disease from the original sufferer.
All diseases were believed to be punishments inflicted by angry
gods; therefore, all medicines were originally charms, i. e. oblations or
sacrifices to propitiate the offended spirits or to secure the interposition
of still more powerful gods who should render nugatory the malevolent
work of the minor. Sometimes, the charms employed suggest unmis-
takably the prior existence of human sacrifice ; the trembling victim
was ordered to sacrifice himself or one of his household. But, on the
principle that the part represents the whole, in other words, that the
actual sacrifice could be deferred in consideration of the presentation
of a pledge, such a pledge was offered in the shape of hair, nails, skin,
blood, excrements, saliva, or shreds of the clothing belonging to the
interested devotee, the supposition, of course, being that the propiti-
ated Deity could, at a future time, insist upon the execution of the
contract, or the consummation of the sacrifice the pledge guaranteed.
Therefore, when we find in " sympathetic " cures, that human
exuviae, excrements, etc., are thrown into ponds, we may without diffi-
culty infer that the fishes or water gods, in accepting the oblation,
accepted the sacrifice as symbolized, and, being appeased, took back to
themselves the disease they had in their wrath inflicted.
The same is the underlying principle when such " charms," as we
very properly call them, were hung upon trees, or stones, or around
458 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
holy wells ; it was the guardian spirits of those localities which had
been offended and must be mollified by the " carmen " or ode of incan-
tation which was an inseparable adjunct of all such votive offerings, —
from which comes our own word " charm." i
When the " charm " was thrown to a dog, or placed in a field, where
cattle, horses, or sheep, or wild beasts might pasture upon it, an ani-
mal god had to be propitiated ; and where it was simply thrown out
on the road, or, better still, at a cross-roads, the " earth-spirits," or
some goblins not definitely determined upon, ua the mind of the sacri-
ficer, were believed to be the authors of his infirmity.
Hanging these charms up in the chimney of one's own house was
clearly an invocation to clan or family spirits to withdraw their wrath
from an afflicted kinsman, or hasten to his assistance. Viewed in this
light, the " charms " that to us seem so trivial, the rags, tufts of hair,
etc., may, in the mind of the person offering them, have been obla-
tions of the most sacred character.
1 The word "carmen" shown to be the origin of "charm," by Grimm. —
("Teut Mythology," vol. iii. p. 1035.)
The same derivation is given by Webster and other authorities.
In the Samoan islands " When offerings were eaten in the night by dogs or rats,
it was supposed that the god chose to become incarnate for the time being in the
form of such living creatures." — (" Samoa," G Turner, London, 1884, p. 25.)
REASON OF THE USE OF HUMAN ORDURE AND URINE. 459
LI.
AN EXPLANATION OF THE REASON WHY HUMAN OR-
DURE AND HUMAN URINE WERE EMPLOYED IN
MEDICINE AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.
ANCESTOR-WORSHIP. MAN-WORSHIP. — THE GRAND LAMA.
"TTOMO est rnedicus, et ex homine mediciua paratur," said Flem-
-*-*- ming, in his " De Remediis ex corpore huinano desumtis," that
is to say, man being a doctor, from man medicine is prepared.
The savage, with all his fear of the vague and indefinable, had still
a wonderful belief in himself as the greatest of nature's works ; all his
great gods he created in his own image and likeness ; he went even
further, and ascribed to the priests or representatives of the gods, the
same respect and veneration as were supposed to be due to the gods
themselves; hence arose man-worship, still existing in Thibet in its
most pronounced form, and surviving in Europe down to the present
generation almost, in the modification known as "touching for the
king's evil," which touching derived its efficacy from the double belief
that all ailments were sent from some supernatural, and, generally,
maleficent, source, and could, therefore, best be cured by the imposi-
tion of the hands of an individual whom the inunction of a little con-
secrated fat had bound more closely to the Omnipotent.1
This belief cropped out in charms and talismans, which were nothing
more nor less than medicines to avert bad luck and remedy dis-
ease, itself a manifestation of bad luck; or, to express the idea still
more clearly, medicines themselves were nothing but charms originally,
in the application of which our forefathers paid less attention to phar-
maceutical properties than they did to those of an occult or " sympa-
thetic " nature which their own ignorance attributed to them.
1 The anointing of kings is a survival of Pagan usages ; anointed monarchs are
alluded to in the sacred books of Thibet : " du monarque oint . . . Pratimoksha
Sutra." — (W. "W. Rockhill, Societe Asiatique, Paris, 1885.)
4C0 SCATALOGIC KITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Animals and plants and stones, being objects of worship, were natur-
ally enough called upou to furnish remedies for all ailments, and pallia-
tives for every misfortune. The grandest animal of all, man, could
not well be omitted from the Materia Medica ; every thing that per-
tains to either sex, either in structure or in function, must have im-
pressed the untutored mind with a sense of awe ; all excretions, solid
or fluid, were invested with mystic properties, and called into requisi-
tion upon occasions of special import.
On the subject of man-worship, consult Frazer, " The Golden Bough,"
vol. i. c. 2, pp. 8, 9.
" Among the negroes, royalty is deified ; kings are supposed to be
of the race of gods, and, after death, become demi-gods." — ("Fetich-
ism," Baudin, p. 24.)
Saliva, the ordure, urine, catamenial fluid, blood, bile, calculi, bones,
skulls, — all were mysterious, and therefore were "medicine," espe-
cially when obtained from a saint or lama.
This belief subsisted among tribes and communities long after civil-
ization of a high type had been attained, and is probably what Saint
Mark alludes to in an ambiguous passage, when he says, " It is not the
things which enter a man's body, but those which come out of it,
which defile him."
Again, it is not from the bodies of the living alone, but from the
corpses of the dead likewise, that medicinal preparations were derived ;
but in the latter case there enters into the question another expression
of thought, shared by primitive man in all countries and in all ages ;
i. e., that the part is ever the representative of the whole, and that
when the whole cannot be obtained, the part will be equally effica-
cious. Hence the precious care with which, in all communities in a
low state of culture, the bones, teeth, rags of clothing, and other
exuviae of the sacred dead have been treasured.
EASTER EGGS. 461
LII.
EASTER EGGS.
rpHE constant use of the egg in effecting these cures by transplan-
-*- tation awakens a suspicion that the origin of the pretty custom
of giving away Easter eggs, beautifully colored, was induced by some-
thing more than charitable impulse. Nearly every usage that remains
among us as a game or a play derives from a serious ancestry. Easter
was pre-eminently the festival of the Chistian church which most
tenaciously preserved the rites of paganism. It was, for some reason,
looked upon as the season when the human body, as well as the house
occupied by that bod)', should undergo a thorough cleansing, and get
rid of all its ailments. The coloring of the eggs suggests color-sym-
bolism, an essentially heathen idea, still retained among ourselves in
full vigor, under many Protean disguises.
When the Puritans gained control of the government of Great
Britain, the coloring of eggs, as we may imagine, was temporarily dis-
continued. The " picking " of the eggs is a survival from one of the
innumerable forms of divination by lot in which the pagan mind of
Rome and elsewhere delighted.
Therefore we may reasonably conclude that the custom, as trans-
mitted to us, is a " survival " from a religious usage intended to effect
the transference by lot of the diseases with which the egg-players were
afflicted.
" The oldest, most familiar, and most universal of all Easter cus-
toms are those associated with eggs. Hundreds of years before Christ,
eggs held an important place in the theology and philosophy of the
Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks, and Romans, among all of whom
an egg was the emblem of the universe, and the art of coloring it was
profoundly studied. The sight of street boys striking their eggs to-
gether to see which is the stronger and shall win the other, was as
common in the streets of Rome and Athens, two thousand years ago,
if we are to believe antiquarians, as it is in any of our American cities
462 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
to-day. These eggs, now called Easter eggs, were originally known as
Pasche eggs, corrupted to paste eggs, because connected with the
Paschal or Passover feast. One reason for associating the egg with
the day on which our Saviour rose from the dead may be, that the
little chicks entombed, so to speak, in the egg, rising from it into life,
was regarded as typical of an ascension from the grave.
" In the north of England it is customary to exchange presents of
Easter eggs among the children of families who are on intimate terms,
a custom which also prevailed largely among the ancients, and to
which the sending of Easter cards and other offerings, which has
become so popular here of late years, may be traced." — (From the
"Press," Philadelphia, Penn., April 21, 1889.)
" Thirty years ago, it was a common practice for all elderly people
to be bled or cupped each spring." — (" Folk-Medicine of the Penn-
sylvania Germans," Hoffman, in Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc, 1889.)
" To hang an egg laid on Ascension Day in the roof of the house,
preserveth the same from all hurt." — (Scot, " Discoverie," p. 193.)
" The modern custom, practised in Tripoli, of a widow transferring
her misfortunes from herself by delivering four eggs to the first stran-
ger she meets." — (Dalyell, "Superstitious of Scotland," p. 110.)
" It comes to be thought desirable to have a general riddance of
evil spirits at fixed times, usually once a year, in order that the people
may make a fresh start in life, freed from all the malign influences
which have been long accumulating among them." - — (" The Golden
Bough," Frazer, vol. ii. p. 163.)
" Modern Jews sacrifice a white cock on the eve of the Festival of
Expiation, nine days after the beginning of their new year. The
father of the family knocks the cock thrice against his own head,
saying, 'Let this cock be a substitute for me,' etc." — (Idem, vol. ii.
p. 195.)
The negroes of Guinea seem to entertain notions on this subject
worthy of incorporation in this chapter : " The sending of the parrot's
egg signifies, Choose the kind of death which would be easiest to you;
otherwise, we will choose for you." — (" Fetichism," Baudin, p. 23.)
In many portions of Europe there are still in existence rustic obser-
vances which, under the mask of games, preserve to the mind of the
anthropologist the former rite of human sacrifice. Among these may
be mentioned one from Sweden, in which a boy — who in the past
ages was evidently the victim selected for sacrifice, and to bear to the
gods the messages of the community, — goes about from house to
EASTER EGGS. 463
house, carrying a basket, in which he collects gifts of eggs and the like."
(Frazer, "The Golden Bough," vol. i. p. 78.) It seems to be logical
to imagine that these gifts, sent to the deities to propitiate them, also
served the purpose of carrying away from the donors any ailments
with which they were afflicted, — the same purpose for which Easter
eggs were broken, .and the transfer of illness brought about by lot.
The insignificance of the egg as an offering, in comparison with the
benefits to be expected, offers no argument in rebuttal of the opinions
just expressed. We should bear iu mind the proneness of the devotee
to reduce the money value of his sacrifice or oblations to the minimum.
This is peculiar to no cultus, confined to no latitude. The worship of
the chicken-god was apparently very widely ramified, especially among
the divisions and subdivisions of what we have chosen to call the Aryan
family. To several of these branches, notably the Wendish and the
Celtic, the chicken was, perhaps, the principal god ; and he remains
to this day in his proud position, whence the first missionaries were
unable to dislodge him, at the summit of the sacred tree or spire of
the village church.
Naturally enough, what we should expect to see upon the recurrence
among these tribes of a festival in which their principal spiritual
powers were to be invoked to expel all forms of disease and evil from
among their worshippers, would be the sacrifice of chickens ; but the
poverty or the niggardliness of the suppliant in many cases suggested
a substitution of the cheaper offering, the egg, which may, in its turn,
have been replaced by the feathers of the bird.
In parts of India, to this day, the scapegoat of the community is a
cock. " In southern Konkan, on the appearance of cholera, the vil-
lagers went in procession from the temple to the extreme boundaries
of the village, carrying a basket of cooked rice, covered with red
powder, a wooden doll, representing the pestilence, and a cock. The
head of the cock was cut off at the village boundary, and the body
was thrown away. When cholera was thus transferred from one vil-
lage to another, the second village observed the same ceremony, and
passed the scourge on to its neighbors." — ("The Golden Bough,"
Frazer, vol. ii. p. 191.)
" When spring comes," said Pantagruel to Panurge, " I will take
a purge."
" Les ceufs sout partout fatidiques." — (" Les Primitifs," Reclus,
p. 356, art. "Les Kolariens du Bengalou.")
4G4 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
MIL
THE USE OF BLADDERS IN MAKING EXCREMENT
SAUSAGES.
TT was believed to be peculiarly necessary that the urine or ordure of
those suffering from epilepsy, yellow jaundice, quartan fevers, etc.,
should be placed in a pig's bladder, and hung up in the chimney ; in
other words, they were made into an excrement sausage.
Traces of the employment of these sausages appear from the most
remote times. Galen has a paragraph which reads as if he had some
such practice in mind. Speaking of human ordure, he says : " Utitur
non modo medicamenti quae focis imponuntur commiscens, sed iis quo-
que quge intro in os sumuntur." It would seem that he was alluding
to mixtures in domestic medicine when some such preparations were
placed on the hearths (focis).
For the potency of these excrement sausages in rescuing victims
from the clutches of witches, from the yellow jaundice, from fevers,
and other troubles we have the assurances of such grave and reputable
writers as Schurig, Paullini, Etmuller, Frommann, and others of ages
past ; while Black certifies to their use in Staffordshire ; and Hoffman
tells us of customs among the Germans of Pennsylvania which are dis-
tinctly and undeniably modifications of those transmitted from the
mother-country. Reference to the words of these authorities, as
herein quoted, is recommended ; among them the following may be
found worthy of remark.
" The entrails will be affected with corrosion when hot excrement
is placed in a bladder." — (Frommann, p. 1023.)
Schurig instances a farmer who by hanging up in his chimney the
dung of his neighbor's horses drove them all into a consumption. —
("Chylologia,"p. 815.)
In the Island of Nukahiva the witch wasn't content with getting
the excrement of the victim ; it had to be put in a " bag woven in a
particular manner," and buried. — (Krusenstern.)
THE USE OF BLADDERS. 465
The devil cannot be more completely frustrated than by placing
upon some of his works human ordure, or by hanging human ordure
in the smoke of the chimney. — (Paullini, p. 260.)
" A certain man bewitched a boy nine years old by placing the boy's
ordure in a hog's bladder and hanging the sausage in a chimney." —
(Idem, p. 261.)
In Staffordshire, to cure the yellow jaundice, a bladder was often
filled with the urine of the patient and placed near the fire. (Black,
" Folk-Medicine.") It is strange to encounter among the Australians
the very same ideas, expressed in identical terms, in regard to effecting
enchantments by means of the victim's ordure, wrapped in a roll or
bundle not altogether unlike the sausages of European occult art.
" Should a Bangal in the course of his wanderings drop across an old
encampment of Bukeens, he searches about for some debris (such as
bones) of the food they have eaten ; but should his search for bones or
some other kindred debris be unsuccessful, as frequently happens (from
the fact of its being a habit common to all the aboriginal tribes to
consume by fire the bones of the game upon which they have fed be-
fore they abandon a camp) , he anxiously scans the ground all round
the abandoned camp for feculent excrement ; and should any of the
Bukeens, from laziness or other cause, have omitted to use his paddle,
or to have used it carelessly, the vigilant Bangal pounces upon the un-
hidden feces as a miser would upon a treasure.
After he has secured his savory find, he lubricates a piece of opos-
sum-skin with the kidney-fat of some of his victims, and carefully
wraps it round his treasure, after which yards of twine are wound
round and round, each wind being what sailors term a ' half-hitch.'
... At night, when all in camp are quiet, the Bangal carefully takes
his prize from the bag, beginning a low, monotonous chant, while he
thrusts one end of the prepared roll into the fire (the fire is small by
design) ; during the process of gradual combustion the chant is con-
tinued. . . . Should it be his wish to kill the Bukeen outright in
one night, he keeps up the chant, and pushes the burning roll forward
into the glowing embers as it consumes, and when the last vestige of
it has dispersed in unsavory smoke the life of the Bangal's victim
has ceased. . . . Should the Bangal, however, wish to prolong the
dying agonies of his foe, he merely burns a small portion of the roll
nightly, chanting his incantation during the process, and should months
pass before the roll is totally consumed so long will the torture of his
victim continue. — (" The Aborig. of Vict, and Riverina," Beveridge,
30
4G6 SCATALOGIC RITES OF ALL NATIONS.
Adelaide, 1889, p. 169, received through the kindness of the Koyal
Society, Sydney, New South Wales, F. B. Kyugdou, secretary.)
" Iu Thuriugia a sausage is stuck in the last sheaf at threshing, and
thrown with the sheaf on the threshing-floor. It is called the " bar-
renwurst," and is eaten by all the threshers. After they have eaten
it, a man is encased in pease straw, and thus attired is led through
the village." — (" The Golden Bough," Frazer, vol. i. p. 371.)
Attaching to this array of facts the value which properly belongs to
each and every one of them, and no more, it seems that the Feast of
Fools may be better understood by regarding it as the burlesque and
distorted " survival " of a sacred, comitial gathering of the gens or
community, in which the excrement sausage served a now completely
forgotten purpose iu eliminating from the people the baleful curse
of witchcraft, epilepsy, jaundice, fevers, and other disorders which
would not yield promptly to the simple medicaments of primitive
therapeutics.
CONCLUSION. 467
LIV.
CONCLUSION.
T ASTLY, it may be urged that the thoughtful consideration of this
-^ subject will not be without results of importance to science. It
shows us, if we may employ a mathematical expression, that by inte-
grating the equation of man's development between the limits zero, in
which these disgusting practices had full sway, and the limit of a. d.
1891, the precise extent of his advancement in all that we call civili-
zation cau better be understood.
The biologist and psychologist may find material to demonstrate to
what extent primitive man, in corresponding environment in different
regions of the world, will display the same instincts and act under
identical impulses.
The student of comparative mythology will certainly discover much
to interest and instruct him.
The student of folk-lore should find here a field promising the most
prolific results. Folk-usage, especially in folk-raedicine, — which is
simply the crystallization of the mythology and religious medicine of the
most primitive ages, — should respond most generously to any de-
mands that may be made upon this and other points which the
ordinary writer believes to be too unclean for his pen.
To the author it has been a work involving apparently endless re-
search, much of it barren of result, and a correspondence with scholars
in all countries, whose contributions have been of the first importance
iu determining that the filthy rite of urine-drinking as seen among the
Zunis of the United States was paralleled by the orgies of other sav-
ages, and had its counterparts and imitations in the " survivals," often
distorted into burlesque, of nations of high enlightenment.
Verily, it may be said iu concluding, as in beginning this volume,
the proper study of mankind is man ; the study of man is the study of
man's religion.
ADDENDA.
Dr. Thomas G. Morton, of Philadelphia, imparts the information
that not only is the use of human urine still general among ignorant
women during pregnancy, but that it has been learned that female
abortionists have been in the habit of vending a nostrum for defeating
pregnancy, one of the components of which was the catameniul
discharge.
Referring to previous remarks, on page 162, it may be noticed that a
curious instance of survival by contrariety is to be detected in what
Picart relates of the Hebrew ceremonial of the present day. He says
of the behavior of the Hebrew while praying, that he should carefully
avoid gaping, spitting, blowing his nose, or emitting any exhalations :
" II doit eviter autant qu'il se peut de bailler, de cracher, de se
moucher, de laisser aller des vents. (Picart, " Coutumes et Cere-
monies," &c, vol. i. p. 126). All this information seems to be taken
from the work of the Rabbi Leon, of Modena.
In the above are seen the antipodes of the practices characteristic of
the worship of Baal-Peor which the prophets had so much trouble iu
eradicating from the minds of the chosen people.
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OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
Abbot, The, Sir Walter Scott
Aborigines of Victoria aud Riverina,
Beveridge, Adelaide
Abyssinia, A Visit to, W. Winstanley,
London, 1881.
Abyssinian Women (in Evening Star,
Washington, D. C).
Acosta, Historieof the Indies, edition of
London, 1604.
Adanson, Voyage to Senegal, in Pink-
erton.
Adventure and Beagle, Voyage of, Lon-
don, 1830.
jEschinea of Athens (389-317 B C).
Africa, Across, Cameron, London, 1877.
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Terence, Latin Poet.
Ternaux Campan, Voyages, etc., Paris.
Tertullian, Christian Father.
Teutonic Mythology, Jacob Grimm
(Stallybrass translation), London,
1882.
Tezozomoc, Cronica Mexicana, in Kings-
borough.
Theodoret, De Evangelii veritatis cog-
nitione, quoted.
Thevenot, Itinerar. Orient
Thibet, a Description of, in Pinkerton,
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Thibet, Clements C. Markham, London.
31
482
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Thiers, J. B., Traiti des Superstitions,
Paris, 1741.
Thuruberg, Account of the Cape of
Good Hope, in I'inkerton.
Times of India, quoted.
Times, of New lurk.
Titus Livius, quoted.
Tcillius, P.. quoted.
Tooke, William, edition of Luciau's
Tragopodagra, London, 1S20.
Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, Ma-
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Totemism.
Totemism, James G. Frazer, M. A., Edin-
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Tournefort, Voyage to the Levant, ed.
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Tragedy of the Gout, Blambeauseant
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Tree, Lambert, Honorable, U. S. Minis-
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Tregear, E. T., Maoris of New Zealand.
Tribune, New York.
Trumbull, Henry Clay, editor of Sun-
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his views on Initiation by Urine,
The Blood Covenant, Philadelphia,
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Tuchmann, J., La Fascination, in Melu-
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Turnbull, Reverend H. Clay.
Turner's Embassy to Thibet, London,
1806.
Turner, Samoa.
Tvlor, E. B., Primitive Culture, London,
187L
Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures
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Urine Dances and Ur-Orgies, John G.
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Vallencey, General. Grammar of the
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BIBLIOGRAPHY.
483
Wurtz, Mr., charge d'affaires of the
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Xenocrates, born 396 B.C. ; he employed
human and animal ordure and urine,
as well as all human and animal secre-
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Zacutus Lusitanus, a medical writer,
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Zagoskin, Russian explorer.
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INDEX.
Abbot of Unreason, 13.
Abnormal Appetite, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,
233, 311, 314, 316.
Abortion, 105, produced by mistletoe,
105. See also under Parturition.
Aconite, used to poison panthers ; hu-
man ordure the antidote, 244.
Afghans, flatulence regarded as a deadly
insult by, 161.
After-birth, 216, 224, 226, 235, 236, 343,
354, 355; a remedy for witchcraft,
215; in philters, 224 ; as an anti-phil-
ter, 354, 355. See also Therapeutics.
Agaric, 71, 77, 81, 82, 83; the cause of
fairy circles, 82, 83 ; excluded from
Brahminical dietary, 92, 109. See also
Mushrooms.
Aghozis, a Hindu sect who eat human
ordure, 40, 126.
Agnus Castus, 225.
Agriculture, 26, 80, 128, 120, 140, 180,
190, 191, 192, 193, 345, 350, 351, 353,
438; taught to men by Saturn, 129;
urine and ordure in, 129; cow dung
used to make threshing-floors in
France and Italy, 180 ; religious rites
in connection with, in China, 345 ; cat-
amenial women marched round the
Koman fields, 450, — see also the de-
scription from " Hiawatha ; " the
touch of a catamenial woman ruined
vines, fruit trees, etc., 353 ; " fool
ploughs," 438. See also under La-
trines.
"Aiguilette, nouer 1'." See Witchcraft,
Ligatures.
Album Graecum. See Dog Dung.
Alcohol, 39; mixed with urine in drink,
39; abstained from by Lamas while
making sacred pills, 50 ; invented by
the Chinese, 2197 bc. 75, 76; ob-
tained from mushrooms, 81. See In-
toxicants, 379.
Alder. See Tree and Plant Worship;
Cures by Transplantation.
Ale, 39, 232. See Bride-ale ; Intoxicants
Amanita Muscaria. See Mushrooms.
Amber, 289 ; believed to be whale's
dung, 271.
Ambergris, 48.
Ammonia, 39, 199, 201 ; probably sug-
gested by a prior use of urine, 199.
Ammonia, urate of, and guano, used
in phthisis.
Amulets and talismans, 28, 42, 43, 44,
45, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 225, 226, 237,
363, 364, 370, 371, 391, 403, 441, 454,
458 ; mistletoe used as an amulet, in
Sweden, 108; in England, 108, 111;
cow ordure and urine, as, 112 ; the first
tooth dropped by a child an amulet,
363. See Excrement, Grand Lama,
Patriarch of Constantinople.
Amulets and talismans, 225, 245, 267.
Analysis of the mani or sacred pills of
the Buddhists, 53.
Ancestor worship, 459, 460. See Spirits,
Gods.
Ancestors, skulls of, used as drinking-
cups, in Thibet, 250.
Animal Worship. See under Therapeu-
tics, Philters, Aphrodisiacs, Parturi-
tion, Ordeals and Punishments, Mon-
asticism, Cosmetics, Amulets and
Talismans, Cures by Transplantation,
Tattooing.
Anthropomaney. See Divination.
Anti-natural god of the Sioux, 267.
Aphrodisiacs, 78 ; mushrooms regarded
as, 78. 80, 90, 94 ; onions and garlic
regarded as, 93, 94 ; mistletoe regarded
as, 103, 104 ; ordure and urine re-
garded as, 216, 217 ; leopard's dung re-
garded as, 217 ; nettles regarded as,
216, 217, 390 : antiphrodisiacs, 224 ;
the testes of the fox used as an, 225.
April Fool's Day, 432, 437. See Festi-
val of Huli.
Aqua ex stercore. See Excrement-
Aristophanes says that Esculapius ate
excrement, 129; calls thunder flatu-
lence, 163; calls doctors "excrement
eaters," 278, 279.
Arms and armor, 219.
486
INDEX.
Arms and armor, 241, 242, 312, 313, 323.
See VVar Customs.
Asclepius, surname J Pharmacion (the
druggist), believed to have been the
first writer who counselled the use of
human excrement in Therapeutics,
278.
Aspersions, 105 (see Mistletoe, Holy
Water, Lustration, Courtship and Mar-
riage), 113, 220, 225, 236, 247, 201, 300,
3y3, 398, 399, 428 ; urine of Hottentot
priest used in aspersions at weddings,
funerals, etc., 229; upon j-oung war-
riors at time of initiation, 238, 239;
urine of Moorisli bride at time of in-
itiation, 229, — see Queen of Madagas-
car; the water in which Russian
bride had been bathed at time of ini-
tiation, 231, — See Bride-Ale." Asper-
sions with urine in "Witches' Mass,"
274, 383, 388 ; urine used by the High-
landers for aspersing their cattle, 398,
399. See Lingams.
Aspersions, 113, 225, 264. See Rue.
Aspersions, by the Queen of Madagas-
car, 60. See Lustrations, Hottentot
Marriages, Courtship and Marriage,
Holy Water.
Asphalt dissolved by the catamenial
fluid, 350, 385, also by human urine,
385.
Assafcetida, 322, 343, 389, 425, 444;
called " Merde du Piable," 343, 444.
See under Garlic, Stench, Perfume.
Assyria, dung gods of, 130, 132.
Aztecs used poisonous mushrooms in
their sacred dances, 89, 90.
Bacchanalia, 62, 63, 64, 75, 89, 90, 394,
440.
Bang. See Intoxicants.
Banians of India swear by cow dung,
112; eat cow-dung, 119.
Baptism, 232 ; mock baptism, 232.
Barrington, " Observations on the Stat-
utes," comments on tenures of land by
flatulence, 166.
Baslisk, eggs of, would batch only in
dung, or under a toad, 268.
Bathing. See Lustration.
Bedouins eructate as a matter of civil-
ity, 161 ; consider flatulence a deadly
insult, 161, 257, 258.
Beds and bedding, urination in bed, how
prevented, 271, 375, 384; defilement
of, how occasioned, 379.
Beer, 232.
Beer. See Intoxicants.
Belgium, the mannikin of Brussels, 165.
Bel-phegor filthy rites connected with
his worship, 132, 164, 155, 156, 157,
158, 160, 161, 173 ; interview between
Moses and Jehovah, 1C0; analogous
rites among the Hebrews and Parsis.
161.
Bembino, or Isaie table, 13.
Benet, S. V., notes on urine as a den-
trifice, 204.
Bhikshuni of Thibet, 147.
Bile, Human. See Therapeutics.
Bitumen. See Asphalt.
" Black drink " of Creeks and Semi-
noles, 242 ; of Imbando, Africa, 249,
250.
Bladders, 239, 434.
Bladders, 239, 378, 384, 415, 416, 417,
422, 423, 424, 434, 437, 438. 439, 464,
465; mark of distinction for gallan-
try among Hottentots, 239; use by
Apache and other American savages,
484. See Sausage.
Bleaching. See Industries.
Blood-covenant, 240.
Boletus, variety of mushroom, is wor-
shipped in Africa, 80, 91.
" Bona Dea," one of the names of the
goddess Rhea or Cybele, had urinal
aspersions in her rites, 394.
Bones, in medicine, See Therapeutics,
Cures by Transplantation.
" Bora." See Initiation, 240, 241.
" Borgie Well," near Glasgow, made mad
all who drank of its waters, 76:
Borneo, Dyaks of, have the Hebrew
custom in regard to the covering up
of the evacuations, 146.
Bourknns, or spirits of the Kalmucks, —
one of them eats his own excrement,
49.
Bou'an, merchants of, strewed ordure
over their food, 45.
Brahmins ot India, use of cow ordure
and urine in religion, 112, 113, 111,
115, 118, 119, 122, 124.
Brain, in Medicine. See Therapeutics,
Marriage, Aspersions.
Bread, urine and excrement, in making,
32, 38.
"Bread of the Gods" (Mexicans). 89,
90, 91 ; " Cockle Bread," a Phallic
game in England, 221, 222.
Bride, " Bride-Ale," 232. See Courtship.
Bridges, a toll of flatulence exacted
from prostitutes crossing the bridge
of Montluc, in France, 166, 168, 169.
Brussels, the mannikin of, a Phallic
idol, 165.
Buddhism, the god " Sakya-Muni " eats
his own excrement, 49.
Buddhists, 147, 251.
INDEX.
457
Buddhists supposed to be related to the
Druids, 99. See Lamas, Grand Lama.
Bull of Ernulplius, bisliop of Roches-
ter, 251.
Burial. See Mortuary Ceremonies.
Calculus, in medicine. See Thera-
peutics.
Cape of Good Hope. See Hottentots,
etc.
Capuchins, their beastly customs, 147,
148.
Castes of India, restoration to the, 113.
See also Clans.
Casting urine, 396.
Catamenia, 218, 219, 224, 296, 318, 392,
393, 394.
Catamenia, a catamenial woman could
cure " King's Evil," 60 ; mushrooms
used as emmenagogues, 83, 108; mis-
tletoe used as an emmenagogue, espe-
cially that of the oak, 108 ; seclusion
during the duration of the catamenia,
in Alaska, 104, 100; catamenia used
in making love-philters, 217, 218, 219,
224, — see Philters; to preserve chas-
tity, 219; in diseases, 219, — see Ther-
apeutics ; in witchcraft, 210, — see
also Witchcraft, 377 to 401 ; philters
made of catamenia were rendered
abortive by hen-dung. 224, 225, 226;
asses' dung restrained excessive cata-
menia, 278 ; superstitions connected
with the catamenia, 350, — see Cos-
metics, 367 ; catamenial fluid had to
be sprinkled upon mandrake before it
could be pulled out of the ground,
271, 376, 385.
Cemetery, urinating through the wed-
ding ring while in a cemetery baffled
witchcraft, 231. See also under Mor-
tuary Ceremonies.
Cerdier states that the Africans wor-
ship the mushroom, 80.
Ceremonial observances, 206, 107, 208,
211; on Holy Thursday among Russian
dissenters, 162 ; urine drunk in the
marriage ceremonies of the Siberians,
228. See also Initiation.
Ceremonial, tenacity of. See Survivals.
Ceremonies in connection with agricul-
ture in China, 345; in pulling medici-
nal herbs, etc. See Mandrake,
Therapeutics ; see also Weeping,
Kissing, Spitting, Saliva, Shaving.
Flatulence, Urination, Oblations of
Urine and Excrement.
Chaise -pcrcee of the Grand Lama, 42;
the tripod of Esculapius a chaise
pereee, 129.
Chamber-pots, 175, 231.
Charlotte Elizabeth, Princess of Bava-
ria, a coarse letter from, 32.
Charms, 188, 230, 370, 371, 373, 405, 424,
430, 442, 443, 457, 458, 461, 462. See
also Magic, Amulets and Talismans,
Witchcraft, Cures by Transplanta-
tion.
Chastity. See Continence, Anti-Philters.
Cheese, curds, human urine used in
making cheese in Germany, 181 ; and
in Switzerland, 181 ; a " survival " of
the preceding practice among the
Pennsylvania Germans, 396.
Childbirth. See Parturition.
" Chinook Olives," 38, 424.
Chrysocollon, a cement made of urine,
etc., 182, 183.
Clallums of B. North America, Orgies
of, 63.
Clans, 185, 186, 187, 188, 456, 457, 466 ;
the Roman clans were convened upon
the appearance of a case of epilepsy,
456, 457, 466. See Castes, Toteruisiu,
Tattooing.
Clemens Alexandrinus, his account of
excrement gods, 127, 128.
Cloacina, Roman goddess of privies,
127, 134, 264.
Cluli-houses of secret orders, 9.
Cockatrice. See Basilisk.
" Cockle-Bread," a Phallic game in Eng-
land, 221, 222.
Collyrium. See Eye Troubles.
" Comitialia " (see under Epilepsy ; also
under Clans), 45fi, 457, 466.
Commodus, the Roman Emperor, ate
excrement, 30.
Coral, 181, 216; color of, restored by
hanging in a privy, 181 ; coral a rem-
edy for witchcraft, 216.
Cord, sacred, 122. See Initiation, Gir-
dle.
Cosmetics, 88, 287, 30fi, 307, 314, 330,
352, 353. 366, 367, 368. 360; the dung
of pigeons, mice, crocodiles, bulls,
starlings, cows, men, lizards, foxes,
dogs, sparrows, chickens, donkeys,
geese, etc., used as ; also the meconium
of Infants, sperm of frogs, catamenia,
" Aqua Omnium Florum,' 369.
Courtship and marriage, 19, 48, 66, 67, 68,
96, 107, 185, 216 to 233 : brides fumi-
gated with incense made from the ex
crement of the Patriarch of Constanti-
nople, according to Arabian writers,
48; bride and groom sprinkled with
the urine of the Hottentot shamans,
59, 221 ; divination in regard to court-
ship and marriage, 96; the maiden
who was not kissed under the mistle-
488
INDEX.
toe would not be married within the ]
year, 11)3; "ligatures," 107,221 ; wives
in Borneo tattooed on the thighs, 785 ; i
Apache-Yuma matrons tattoo, 18b' ; '
urine drunk at marriages in Siberia, i
228. See Philters, Aphrodisiacs, Lig-
atures, Ring, Wedding, Bride, Wool. |
Coprolite, 184.
" Cry, the more you, the less you piss,"
182.
Crepitus, the God of Flatulence. See
Flatulence.
Crvpto-Jews, 18.
Cures by transplantation, 349.
Cybele. See "Bona Dea," 445.
Dandelion, superstitions in connection
with, 248.
Dandruff, 804, 306, 328, 331.
Dandruff. See Hair
Dentnfice, urine used as a, 203, 204,
205.
Devil's posterior kissed, 384.
Devil's presents all turned to filth and
dross, 27U.
Diseases, all cured by mistletoe, S9. 104,
105, 107 ; catamenia, used in cure of, —
see Catamenia, Therapeutics; ordure
and urine used in the cure of, — see
Therapeutics, Transference of; see
"Cures by Transplantation ;" sacred
diseases, — see Fpilepsy ; the heathen
theory of disease, 423, 441, 442, 443,
444, 445, 446, 456, 458, 457, 462.
Divination, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 90, 96, 107.
126, 155, 233, 234, 246, 247, 248. See
"Cockle-Bread," Urinoscopy, Gam-
bling. Dice, Visions, Onions. Omens,
"Cockle-Bread " Courtship and Mar-
riage, Parturition.
Dreams, 253.
" Drink of Oblivion " of the Druids,
106.
Drink, the "Mad Potion," Wysoccan,
242.
Drinks, 380.
Drinks. See Foods, Urine as a Bever-
age, Intoxicants, Eaude Mille Fleurs,
Table Liqueurs.
Druidism, 372.
Druids. See Mistletoe.
Ducking-stool. See Ordeals and Pun-
ishments.
Dung, all earthly joys compared to, by
the Apostle Paul, by Saint Mnitliew,
and by Thomas a Kempis, 271.
Dung, definition of, 52, — See Pe-dung.
Excrement, Dung-carts, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15; dung-heaps used in punishment,
87 ; dung-gods, 127, 12S, 130, 131, 132,
133., — sen Excrement Gods; dung
thrown by Australian neophytes, 237,
— see Parturition; thrown at Guinea
negresses in their first pregnancy. 237.
Dung of whales, amber was believed to
be, 271.
Dung, the eggs of the basilisk would
hatch only in, 269.
Dungi, king of Chaldea, B.C. 2,000, 52.
Dyaks of Borneo, cover up their evacu-
ations, 146.
Dyeing. See Industries.
Dyeing of Hair. See Hair.
Ear- Wax. See Therapeutics.
Easter eggs, 323. See Eggs.
Eau de Mille Fleurs, made of eow dung,
30, 330; in medicine, see Therapeu-
tics.
Eggs, in " Cures by Transplantation "
(q- v.) ; a plausible explanation of the
meaning of the custom of exchang-
ing Easter eggs, 465.
Emetics. See Therapeutics.
Enchantment. See Magic.
Esculapius ate excrement, 129.
Eucharist, errors in connection with the
doctrine of the, 54, 55, 56.
Eucharistic bread sprinkled with hunmn
semen by the Manicheans and Albi-
genses, 220.
Eunuch, the urine of, used as an aphro-
disiac, 224 ; also as an antiphrodisiac,
224; and as a remedy for sterility,
233, 281 ; emasculation, a religious
rite among Hottentots, 238, 239; also
among the Galli, priests of Cybele,
394.
Evergreens at Christmas. See Mistletoe.
Excrement, Animal. See Therapeutics,
Ordeals. Myths, Insults, Sacrifice,
Industries, Agriculture, Commerce,
Fuel. Hair, Smoking, Philters, Witch-
craft, Virility.
Excrement eaten, 240.
Excrement gods, of Romans, of Egyp-
tians, of Assyrians, of Hebrews, of
Mexicans ; Esculapius an excrement
god ; the excrement gods of the Moa-
bites ; Bel-Phegor an excrement god,
127, 128, 123, 130, 131, 132.
Excrement, Human, see Grand Lama
of Thibet ; in Medicine, see Thera-
peutics ; in Punishments, see Ordeals
and Punishments ; in Initiation, see
Initiation ; in Industries, see Indus-
tries ; in Witchcraft, see Witchcraft ;
was believed to be the greatest pana-
cea aga'inst Witchcraft ; see Cures
by Transplantation. See also Agri-
INDEX.
489
culture, Commerce, Fuel, Hair T>yc,
Hair, Philters, Courtship and Mar-
riage, Virility, Ligatures, War Cus-
toms, Divination, Ordeals, Myths.
Insults, Cosmetics, Amulets and
Talismans.
Excrement, in jewelry, 184.
Exorcism. See Incantation.
Ezekiel, Hebrew prophet, 119. 120, 121 ;
eats human ordure in his food; eats
cow-dung in his food; lies for 390
days on one side and 40 days on the
other, 120; an explanation of his
behavior, 241.
Fairies, 232.
Festivals, religious, their commemora-
tive character, 24.
Fetiches. See Idols, Gods, Amulets,
and Talismans.
Fingers, human, necklace of, deposited
by the author in the National Museum,
Washington, D. C, 364.
Flap-Dragons. See " Healths in Urine,"
229.
Flattery, Cape (B. North America), In-
dians of, have an orgy induced by
poisonous mushrooms, 48, 65.
Flatulence, of fairies, 87 ; flatulence
would kill the Eskimo god " Torn-
garsuk," if witchcraft were going on
in a house, 157 ,• the Devil put to
flight by flatulence, 163, 444; flatu-
lence avoided by the Hebrews while
at prayer, also by the Parsis ; consid-
ered a deadly insult by Bedouins and
Afghans, 161, 257 ; a contest for cham-
pionship among the Arabs, 101; adored
by the Romans, by the Egyptians, by
the Hebrews, by the Moabites, by the
Assyrians, in the worship of Bel-peor,
127 to 163 ; the bibliography of the
subject, 162; tenures of land in Eng-
land by flatulence, 165, 166, 167; "a
toll of flatulence exacted of prosti-
tutes who for the first time crossed
the bridge of Montluc in France, 168;
called " Sir Reverence," by the Irish
immigrants to the United States. 169 ;
in games in England. 173; Satan
"lets a f — t," in the old Moralities,
173 ; the punishment for, among small
boys in Philadelphia, Pa., 174, 175,
176; in obscene tales, 119, 120.
Flesh, Human. See Mummy, Corpse,
Therapeutics.
"Flowers as Emblems" (Standard, Lon-
don), 298.
Fly Agaric. See Mushroom.
Fly Poison. See Mushroom, Amanita,
Agaric, 68.
Fox, Charles James, the English orator,
his essay upon flatulence ; essay upon
wind, 112.
Fuel, human excrement said to have
been used as, 120; the excrement of
animals known to have been used as,
120, 195, 1UG, 197, 198; among Israel-
ites, 120.
Fullers. See Industries, Bleaching.
Fungus. See Mushroom, Mistletoe.
Games, 252. 253, 254 ; sailors', 254 ; har-
vest, 253.
Garlic, Lamas abstain from it while
making mani pills, 50 ; Chinese priests
abstain from it while sacrificing, 95 ;
used by the Scandinavians to frus-
trate witchcraft, 90 ; an article of diet
from the earliest ages, 96 ; the smell
of garlic accounted a sign of vulgarity
in the time of Shakespeare, 96 ; offered
to the manes of the dead by the
Greeks, 90 ; invoked as a God by the
Egyptians, 96 j not eaten by the Pelu-
sians, 96 ; Peruvian priests abstained
from it while engaged in sacrifice, 95.
Gods believed to become incarnate in
the medicine men, 69, — see Lamas;
children in the Samoan Islands are
called the "excrement of such and
such a god," 69; Bacchus or Dionv-
sius, 62; Mithras, 62 ; "Bread of the
Gods" (Mexico), 90; Egyptian gods,
94 ; onions and garlic adored as gods,
94. See also Mushrooms and Mistle-
toe, Dung-Gods, Cloacina, Crepitus.
Gods, heathen, idea of, 157.
Golden Bough, The, James G. Frazer,
M. A., London, 1890. See Frazer.
Gomez. See Nirang.
Grace, Herb of, Rue so called.
Grand Lama of Thibet, his excrements
made into amulets, 43, 44, 45, 40. 47,
48, 49, 50, 51, 52 ; his urine mixed in
food, 44 ; the same ideas in Ireland,
57, 58, 00; and in Uganda, Africa,
00; the excrement of the Grand Lama
made into snuff, 214.
Guerlichon. Saint, Phallic statue near
Bruges, 430.
Hair, 240 ; in medicine, — see Thera-
peutics, 343. 345. See also "Cures
by Transplantation," 345, 412. See
Witchcraft.
490
INDEX.
Hair, urine used in eradicating dandruff
from, 198, 199, 280, 814; excrement
of different kinds used as a dye for,
199 ; camel's dung and urine good
for, 280 ; bull's urine good for, 280.
Ha-o-kah, the anti-Natural god of the-
Sioux, 106.
Harvest Games. See Games.
Haschish. See Intoxicants.
'• Healths in urine," 229. See Flap-
Dragons.
llelniont, Von. SeeOritrika.
Herb of Grace, Rue so-called. See Rue,
224, 225.
Holi, huli, hulica, festival of, 432, 434.
Holv water, 51,60, 61, 105, 108,110,211,
225, 228, 229, 247, 201, 264, 383, 388,
394, 398, 399, 428, 431 ; sweet-scented
water used in sacred rites by Lamns,
51 ; the urine of the Hottentot medicine
men was looked upon as holy water,
60, 229; the water of the mistletoe
used as, 105, 108. See also " Water
of Immortality." Cow urine regarded
as holy water by Parsees and Hindus,
116; holy water superseded a former
use of urine, 211, 201 ; urine used in-
stead of, in " Witches' Mass," 383,
388, 394, 397, 398; the water of the
river Ganges held to be holy, 428 ;
lingam, 304, 305,431 ; "yellow water,"
431.
Horn, the sacred plant of the Magi ; its
resemblance to mistletoe, 101.
" Homines habill s en Femme," 22, 23.
Horns, as symbols of power, 408; in
witchcraft", 245.
Hospitality. In Siberia, women are pre-
sented to distinguished guests who
must drink their urine, 228, 310.
Hugo, Victor, refers to the tax of flatu-
lence imposed upon prostitutes in
France, 168.
" Hum," the sacred drink of the Parsis,
380.
Hunting and fishing, mistletoe ensured
success in, 109 ; sacrifices offered to
the god of, lfil ; bladders worn by dis-
tinguished Hottentot hunters, 244.
Idols, 354 ; women of the, 406.
" Impenetrability of Weapons," 219.
Incantation. See under Witchcraft ;
see also Singing, Music.
Incantations, 218.
Industries, 177 to 195.
Initiation, 189, 240, 243, 383, 384 ; In
dians compelled to eat cow-dung be-
fore, 114, 119; tattooing upon, 185;
Parsis drink bull urine, 238; Hot-
tentot young men emasculated and
sprinkled with urine at time of, 238,
239; Eskimo candidate for the honor
of medicine men, had to be accus-
tomed to the smell of urine from
babyhood, 239; initiation of witches,
402. See also Confirmation.
Insanity. See Mania.
Insults, 87, 114, 263, 254, 255, 256, 257,
379; ordure and urine in, 87; the
Hebrews revile each other's temples,
calling them " Houses of Dung," 114.
Intoxicants, sacred character of, 75, 89,
90, 91 ; at weddings, 229. See Mush-
rooms, Mistletoe, Haschish, Wine,
Urine.
Intoxication, sacred, 380.
Ireland, called the " Urinal of the Plan-
ets," 269.
Isaiah, Hebrew prophet, supposed to
refer to the mistletoe, 101 ; had at-
tacks of mania, 121 ; compared human
justice " panno menstruata:," 253.
Jewelry, excrement as, 184.
Jews' Ears. See Mushrooms.
Kadeshim, 406.
Kashima, 206, 207, 434.
Kempis, Thomas a, compared all human
joys to dung, 271.
King's Evil, could be cured by the touch
of the king. 60, 61 ; or by that of a
menstruating woman, 60, 01 : the first
of these beliefs is evidently a " sur-
vival " of man worship, 60, 61 ; could
be cured by the urine of a male child,
300.
Kingsley, J. W., M.D., his views on Ur-
orgies, 65, 70.
Kissing. See under Phallism, 103, 104,
173, 222; under Mistletoe, 103, 104.
As a religious rite in the Christian
church, 104; kissing the post of Bil-
lingsgate, London, 173.
" Knife, The," a secret order of the
Zunis, 6 ; " Knife, the Winged," a god
of the Zunis of New Mexico, 9.
Kutka, a god of the Kamtchatkans, falls
in love with his own excrement, 267.
Lajarde, his definition of " Cow's Wa-
ter," 113.
Lamas, 42, 43, 44, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52,
53, 58, 59, 82, 118, 126; among the
Irish, 58. 69, 82. See Grand Lama of
Thibet, Priests, Buddhists.
INDEX.
491
Lamas of Thibet, 358. See Bhikshunis,
Budilliists.
Latrines, 134-153.
Loretto, shrine of, tattooing practised
at, 190.
Love-I'hilters, 223. See Philters, Divi-
nation, Courtship and Marriage.
Lustral Water, 240, 400.
Lustration. See Aspersion, Baptism.
" Mad Potion," Wysoccan, 243.
Magic, mistletoe believed to have magi-
cal powers, 100 ; Osthanes, the Per-
sian, the first writer upon magic, ac-
cording to Pliny, 376. Sec under
Eunuch, Aphrodisiacs, Witchcraft,
Amulets and Talismans, Charms, In-
cantations.
Magical Impenetrability. See under
War Customs.
Mandrake, 376.
Mandrake, before pulling it out of the
ground, it was anointed with the urine
of a woman and the catamenia of a
virgin, 376.
" Mangeurs de Blanc." 287.
Mania, induced by drinking the water
of the " Borgie well " of Glasgow, 76 ;
induced by poisonous mushrooms,
79; human ordure and urine a cure
for, 314, 339; Ezekiel and Isaiah had
attacks of, 121.
Manieheans, bathed in urine, 211 ; sprin-
kled the Eucharistic bread with se-
men, 229.
Man worship, 59, 60, 61, 459, 460, —see
Grand Lama of Thibet ; see Gurus ;
see Patriarch of Constantinople, 36 ;
see Excrement, Pedung ; the same
ideas in Ireland, 60 ; and in Uganda,
Africa, 60 ; the existence of man wor-
ship in Europe, 61; connected with
the belief in the power of the king's
touch, to cure the King's Evil, 61.
Marriage. See Courtship and Marriage.
Marrow, human, in medicine, see Thera-
peutics ; in witchcraft, see Witch-
craft.
Matthew, Saint, compares all human
joys to dung, 271.
Meconium, — see Therapeutics ; a cos-
metic, see Cosmetics.
Medicine-men of the Ove-hereros,Africa
urinate on the sick in order to effect
cures, 339.
Menstruation. See Catamenia.
"Merde du Diable," assafcetida so
called. 444.
Merde, Holy. See Excrement.
Metals, transmutation of. See Potable
Gold. Human urine used in effecting,
183.
Milk vessels in Africa, washed out with
human urine, 199; a good flow of
milk assured by washing the cow's
udders with urine, 211; a good flow
of milk assured in a woman's breasts,
by washing them with urine, 211; in
' medicine, — see Therapeutics ; sprink-
led by nursing women upon a tire,
391 ; milk of cow sprinkled upon the
lingam, 428, 431.
Mistletoe, 74, 75, 92, 99, 100, 101, 102,
103, 104, 105, 106, 154, 301; spoken of in
Cingalese Myths, 92, 99, 100, 101. 102,
103, 104, 105, 106 ; why venerated by
the Druids, 99, 100, 101; adored by
the Massagetae and the Persians, 101,
102 ; and by the ancients generally,
100; a cure for sterility, 101, 102;
Virgil called it " Branch of Gold,"
101 ; Charon dumb in the presence of,
101 ; a Phallic symbol, 101, 102 ; a
berry plucked off with every kiss,
103 ; kissing under, 103 ; dedicated to
Mylitta, 103; mistletoe of the oak,
pear, and hazel, will produce abor-
tion, 104 ; alleged to have been held
sacred by the mound-builders, 107.
Mistletoe, when found growing on the
oak, represented man, 110.
Mock baptism, 232.
Mortuary ceremonies. 150, 152, 162. 261,
262, 263; purification in, 150; the va-
gina, urethra, nostrils, rectum, etc., of
corpses closed by the Pelew island-
ers, 102 ; defilement from touching a
corpse, 261.
Mound-builders, alleged to have held
mistletoe sacred, 76.
Mourning, 262; urine and ordure a9
signs of, 262; Australians in mourn-
ing rub themselves with the moisture
from the corpse, 261. See Mortuary
Ceremonies.
Muhongo, an African boy from Angola.
Muk-a-Moor. See Mushrooms.
Mummy, in medicine, see Therapeu-
tics ; in love-philters, see Philters.
Museum, National. See National Mu-
seum.
Museum, Washington, D C , 364.
Mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms used
in Ur-orgies, 65 to 91 ; obeyed as a
god by the Siberians, 70, 75; at the
" Holy Well of the Borgie," Glasgow,
76; adored as a god bv the Africans,
79 ; detested by Hindus, 92
Musk, odor of, restored by hanging it in
a privy, 181 ; in medicine, — see Ther-
492
INDEX.
apeutics ; human excrement was called
musk by Paracelsus, 341.
Mylitta, Babylonian goddess of venery ;
prostitution in her temples, 101, 103,
404, 406. 406, 407, 408.
Myths, 151, 220, 250, 206-271.
Nails, in medicine, — see Therapeutics ;
see Witchcraft ; Cures by Trans-
plantation.
Names, 59, 123, 124, 442; in Samoa,
children are named the "excrement
of Tongo," or some other god, 50 ; in
India, and among the Parsis, children
are sprinkled with cow urine, when
named, 153; the name of the victim
had to be invoked in a substitutive
sacrifice, 124 ; the name of the patient
had to be mentioned when medicinal
herbs were gathered, 442.
Nanacatl, the poisonous mushroom used
in Mexican orgies, 89, 90.
Necklace of human fingers, deposited by
the author in the National Museum,
Washington, D. C, 364.
Necromancy. See Witchcraft.
" Nehue-cue." a secret order of the
Zunis, 7, 8. 9.
Nirang, 8. 122, 391. See Urine, Gomez,
Cow Urine, Lustrations.
Omens. See Divination.
Ordeals and Punishments, 249, 250, 251,
252, 253.
Ordure. See Excrement.
Origen, 108.
Osthanes, the magician, accompanied
the army of Xerxes into Greece, and,
according to Pliny, was the first writer
on magic ; his views on the magical
effects of human urine, 376.
Ove-hereros, of Africa, their medicine-
men urinate on the sick in order to
effect cures, 339.
Parsis, anoint themselves with the or-
dure and urine of the cow, 7, 8, 48 ;
drink cow urine, 7, 8, 48, 113, 122, 211 ;
asperse themselves with cow urine,
113, 122; use of bull urine at time of
confirmation, 238.
Parturition, mushrooms given to bring
about pregnancy, 83; the Hindu
women's method for aiding preg-
nancy, 93; mistletoe given to aid
childbirth, 100; and to cure sterility.
100,101, 102. 103, 104; human ordure
and urine drunk to remedy sterility,
126; Apache- Yuma women tattoo
themselves when anxious to become
mothers, 186; ceremonies connected
with the first pregnancy of Guinea
negresses, 210, 211; the breasts of
Scotch women bathed with human
urine, 210, 211 ; the breasts of the
women of the French peasantry bathed
with human urine, 210, 211 ; a pessary
of meconium to cure sterility, 233;
English women drank the urine of
husband to aid them in labor, 234 ;
idem, France, 235; Germany, etc.
305; teeth worn as amulets during
pregnancy, 364 ; in the Kala-Vala, it
is narrated that a maiden became
pregnant after swallowing a berry,
108.
Paschasius. a Roman judge, sprinkled
Saint Lucy with uriue because she
was a witch, 394.
Pastimes. See Games.
Paul, the apostle, compares all human
joys to dung, 271.
Pelusium, onion was worshipped as a
god in, 96; the people did not eat
onions or garlic, 96 ; they adored flat-
ulence, 155.
Penance. See Ordeals and Punishments.
Perspiration, a component of love-
philters ; in medicine, 290, 412. See
* Therapeutics, Cures by Transplant-
ation.
Phallic dances, the Phallus fungus, 79 ;
a Phallic importance seems to have
attached to the onion, 96 ; likewise
to the mistletoe, 103; "Jack of Hil-
ton," apparently a Phallic idol, 1G5,
166; the " Mannikin " of Brussels, an-
other, 165, 1C6; the Phallic game of
" Cockle Bread," 221, 222. See under
Lingam.
Phallism, 7, 12, 79, 103, 117, 165, 166,
221, 222, 261, 428, 429, 430. 431.
Pharmacy, among savages, is always a
matter of religion, 277. See Thera-
peutics.
Philosopher's stone. 226, 304, 305. See
Transmutation of Metals; see "Pota-
ble Gold."
Philters, ordure and urine in, 216, 217.
218, 223; death the punishment for
making them of ordure and urine, 210 :
philters were also made of perspira-
tion, semen, and catamenia, 216, 217.
218, 219; made by transfusion of
blood, 219; anti-philters, 224, 225,
226.
Phosphorus. See Industries.
" Piss, the more you, the less you cry,"
275.
INDEX.
493
Placenta, see After-Birth ; in philters,
see Philters.
Plaster, see Industries.
Pledges, 228, 210, 427, 457. 458; human
urine drunk as a pledge of friend-
ship in Siberia, 228. See under Blood
Covenant, 240; see under Human
Sacrifice, 457.
Poison, 68, 234, — see Mushrooms; see
" Imbando ; " human ordure an anti-
dote for, 311, 312, 313, 322, 323; hu-
man ordure also used by the Japanese
as a cure for the wounds of poisonous
weapons, 311, 312; also for the same
purpose by other nations, 312, 313 ;
the patient's own urine an antidote
for, 320, 322 ; the bites of venomous
animals, mad dogs, and snakes, cured
by human ordure, 312; and by urine,
414 ; but there was no " Cure by
Transplantation " for poison, 412.
" Potable Gold," 303, 305. See Trans-
mutation of Metals, 183.
Pregnancy. See Parturition.
Presents, those received from the devil
always turned into filth, 401.
Priests, 10, 11, 12, 15, 19, 20, 25, 30, 31,
32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 60, 67, 68, 69,
70, 71, 72, 89, 109, 110, 115, 116, 128.
129, 135, 156 ; the water in which they
defecated, drunk by pious Irish kings,
58; the Chinese priests have mush-
rooms as part of their diet, 81 ; the
chief priest of the Romans was called
the greatest bridge builder, 169, 170,
171; priests tattooed the young men,
185, 186 ; the priests of Jupiter Am-
nion made sal ammoniac, 195; Hot-
tentot priests sprinkled their urine
upon wedding guests, young warriors,
and mourners, 229 ; priests were the
earthly representatives of their dei-
ties, 322, 362; the skulls of Buddhist
priests used in divination, 359.
Prostitution, sacred prostitution, 101.
103, 168, 404, 405, 406, 407 ; a toll of
flatulence exacted of prostitutes cross-
ing bridge of Montluc in France, 168,
169; in the South Sea Islands, 135;
in Paris, 337 ; prostitutes in Rome
offered expiations of catamenia, 350 ;
the prostitutes of Amsterdam believed
that horse-dung brought them luck,
405 ; the prostitutes of Babylon, 404,
405, 406; of Patagonia, 407.
Purification. See Lustration, Mortuary
Ceremonies, Aspersion, Holy Water.
Queen of Madagascar asperses her sub-
jects with the water in which she lias
bathed, 60.
Rain, the urine of the gods, 270.
Rainbow, 180, 207, 442 ; regarded gener-
ally by the savage mind as a panacea,
442, and by the Africans as a serpent,
267.
Rattles, 6, 437 ; sometimes consulted as
oracles, 437 ; and adored as a god,
437.
Haven talked to its own excrement, 270.
Reverence, Sir Reverence, 170, 247, 253,
Ring, urination through the wedding
ring baffled witchcraft, 230, 231 ; rings
were formerly exchanged by bridal
couple, 230. See Amulets and Talis-
mans, Courtship and Marriage, Circle.
Ritual of the Feast of the Ass, 15 ; of
the Lamas for making mani pills, 49,
50, 51 ; of the Moslems for urinating,
141 ; of bridge-builders in the Mid-
dle Ages, 169, 170, 171 ; of Bel-Phe-
gor, 173, — see under Bel-Phegor ; see
also Kissing the Post of Billingsgate ;
of the Manicheans and Albigenses,
220.
Ritualistic cannibalism, 64, 155; among
Hebrews, 155.
Roman Catholic Church, councils inter-
dict the use of ordure and urine in
witchcraft, 210, 394; also interdict
love-philters, 220, 221 ; used rue in
exorcism, 225.
Rosemary, 399.
Rue, 225 ; called " Herb of Grace," 225 ;
an urino-genital irritant, 225 ; used
to asperse congregations, 225, 245;
died if touched by a menstruating
woman, 350 ; used in the manufacture
of anti-philters, 225. See Tree and
Plant Worship.
Sacred intoxication, 381.
Sacrifice, — see also Oblations, Votive
Offerings, see Human Sacrifice, see
Substitutive Sacrifice, Abstinence ;
Chinese priests abstain from garlic
while offering sacrifice. 95 ; garlic was
offered in sacrifice by Greeks and
Egyptians, 95; cow dung and urine
in sacrifice in India and Thibet, 112,
113, 114, 116, 110, 117; ashes of cow
dung used by the Hindus and He-
brews, 113, 114; of ordure placed on
the altars of the Assyrian Venus, 129,
130; ditto of Mexican dung gods, 131 ;
of ordure and urine on the altars of
Bel-Phegor, 132, 133 ; sacrifices of
ear-wax, saliva, mucus, tears, 132, 133.
See Ceremonial Observances.
Sagard, Pere, 234 ; Histoire du Canada,
edition of Paris, 1885.
494
INDEX.
Sakya-Muni. See Buddha.
Salagram. See Lingaru.
Sal Ammoniac. See Industries.
Saliva, 202,417, — see also Spitting; as
an oblation to Bel-peor, 132, 133 ; in
medicine, — see Therapeutics ; see
"Cures by Transplantation."
Salt, urine employed as a substitute for,
118, 199, 204 ; and in the manufacture
of, 193 ; salt and water as a substitute
for urine, 211 ; in witchcraft, 379, 403,
— see Witchcraft ; not generally eaten
by witches, 402 ; used by the Irish to
drive away witches, 404.
Saltpetre. See Industries.
Samoan Islands, filthy names given
to children, as a matter of religion,
59.
Santa Claus, his derivation from polar
countries, 209.
Saturnalia. See Bacchanalia, Huli.
Scatomancy, or Divination by Excre-
ment. See Divination.
Scatophagi (excrement eaters). See
Excrement.
Scybalaophagi. See Scatophagi, Ex-
crement.
Sectarial Marks of the Hindus. See
Tattooing.
Secundines, an anti-philter, 226-235.
See After-Birth.
Semen in love-philters, 217, 219,—
see Philters ; in medicine, see Ther-
apeutics; in witchcraft, see Witch-
craft.
Semen lini, 297.
Shamrock. See Druids.
Shampooing. See Hair.
Signatures, Doctrine of. See Cures by
Transplantation.
Silence, in ceremonial observances, 414,
442 ; in gathering medicinal plants,
442.
Skin, 292.
Skin, Human, in Therapeutics. See
Therapeutics.
Skull, human, in medicine. — see Thera-
peutics ; a remedy for witchcraft ;
moss growing on skull ; in medicine ;
in the religious ceremonies of the
Lamas, 359.
Smoking, buffalo dung smoked, 182,
214 ; hen dung smoked in adulterated
opium, 182; the excrement of the
Grand Lama used as snuff, 214; pig
dung used as snuff, 214; the people
of Achaia smoked cow dung, 214.
See also Incense.
Smudges. See also Fuel.
Snake, 33; as food, 33; snake dances,
27.
Snuff, the excrement of the Grand Lama
made into snuti', 214 ; pig dung used
as, 214, 329; powdered skulls used as,
252; moss growing on skull used as,
360. See Smoking, Tobacco, Excre-
ment, Grand Lama.
Soap, antedated by urine, 140. 202, 203.
Sorcery. See Witchcraft, Enchantment.
Spatalomancy .divination by Skin, Bones
and Excrement. See Divination, Scat-
omancy.
Spells. See Magic.
Stercoraceous chair of the Popes, 213.
" Stercoranistes," or " Stercorarians," a
sect charged with believing that the
sacred elements in the Eucharist were
subject to digestion, 54, 55, 56.
" Stercoraire, — Chaise des Papes," 213.
Stercus, Sterculius, Stercutus, Sterqui-
linus. See Dung Gods.
Sterility, 226, 236.
Sterility. See Therapeutics.
Substitutive sacrifice, Ezekiel substi-
tutes cow dung for human ordure in
his food, 119, 120, 121; the cow, a
substitute for human sacrifice, 122 ;
ox, buffalo, and goat, ditto, 123, 124,
125, 126; cock and chamois, ditto,
171 ; wolf or goat, ditto, 171 ; chicken,
ditto, 252. See Survivals.
Sulphur, " Occidental Sulphur," a name
for human ordure when administered
in medicine, 424.
Sun Dance, 27.
Superstition. See Survivals, Eeligion,
Survivals, burlesque survivals, 306, 307,
308, 432, 433, 434, 435, 436, 437. See
Substitutive Sacrifice.
Sweat-Bath. See Purification, Lustra-
tion.
Sympathetic Cures. See Cures by
Transplantation, Color Symbolism,
Doctrine of Signatures.
Sympathies, the Doctrine of. See Color
Symbolism, Cures by Transplanta-
tion ; Similia Similibus.
" Szombatiaks," of Transylvania, 18, 19.
Tallow, Human, in medicine. See
Therapeutics.
Tanning. See Industries.
Tartar, the impurities from human teeth,
used in medicine. See Therapeutics.
Tattooing, 184, 185, 1S6, 187, 188, 189,
190; in Australia, 187 ; among Amer-
ican Indians, 185, 180; among Bur-
mese, 186; the sectarial marks of the
Hindus, 186; " Tattooed Face," a god
of the Mandans, 186; tattooing of
captives, 186.
INDEX.
495
Teeth, — see Dentrifiee; in medicine,
255, — see Therapeutics ; to frustrate
witchcraft, 261, — see Witchcraft.
Tenacity of Ceremonial. See Survivals.
Tenures of land, 165, 166, 107 ; obscene
tenures in England, 165, 166, 167;
"Ancient" Blount, 165, 106, 167; of
land by flatulence, in England, 165,
166, 167 ; the antiquity of these ten-
ures, 167.
Testes, testicles, 200 ; of bridegroom
anointed with " Zibethum," 230. See,
also, Eunuchs.
Testicles, 225, 230 ; of goat and fox,
used as aphrodisiacs, 225; of bride-
groom anointed, 280.
Therapeutic Hagiology, 157, 158, 159,
100,423,415, 41(i.
Therapeutics, 277 to 343 inclusive; 314
to 365 inclusive., — see Parturition,
Courtship and Marriage, Sterility,
Virility, Ligatures, Amulets and
Talismans, Cosmetics, Witchcraft,
etc. ; the Heathen theory of thera-
peutics, 423.
Thibetan doctors churn the patient's
urine before making a diagnosis of
disease, 273.
Toasts, urine drunk in, 22:), 238.
Tobacco, cured by hanging in privies,
181 ; mixed with buffalo or rhinoceros
dung for smoking, 214 ; used by the
Irish to drive away fairies, 408.
Tolls, on bridges, roads, etc., 100, 167,
168, 169; of flatulence, exacted from
prostitutes, 106, 167, 168, 169.
" Torngarsuk," an Eskimo god, could
be killed by flatulence, 157.
Totem. See Clan, Tattooing.
"Transplantation, Cures by," 378 to
427 inclusive, 439, 411, 412, 443, 444.
457, 458, 460. See Animal Worship,
Tree and Plant Worship.
Tree and plant worship, 427, — see
Rue; Mistletoe, 56, 57 ; Aconite, 150,
Dandelion, 150; Mushroom. 56. See
Oak.
Urinals. See Latrines.
Urination in bed, charm to prevent, 375.
Urination, posture in, 141, 151, 152;
Mahometans, 141 ; Apaches, men and
women, 151; ancient Irish, 152; Ital-
ians, 152; Chinese, 152; Greeks, Ro-
mans, etc., 375. See Ceremonial Ob-
servances.
Urine, 230, 239, 240, 241; used as a
stimulant in South America, Malacca.
Bavaria, and Central Africa, 332, 333 ;
given to new-born babes in England,
239, 240, 241 ; urine drinking, 239,
240, 241 ; poured upon the head of a
woman in labor by Eskimo, 286.
Urine of medicine men sprinkled upon
Hottentot bride and groom, 59, 228,
229; the Queen of Madagascar sprin-
kled her subjects with the water in
which she had bathed, 60; a simi-
lar custom at Russian weddings, 281 ;
a remedy for witchcraft, 216, — see
Witchcraft ; in conjunction with the
lizard is an antiphrodisiac, 224, — see
Ligature, Virility, Wedding, Wedding
Ring ; the Eskimo boy who aspires to
become a medicine man must accus-
tom himself to the smell of urine from
boyhood, 239 ; urine in sacrifice, — see
Sacrifice, Lustration, Aspersions, Ob-
lations, War Customs, Divination ;
urine in cosmetics, — see Cosmetics;
urine in witchcraft, — see Witchcraft,
Initiation ; urine in bread-making, 32,
39 ; urine in industries, — see Agricul-
ture, Industries, Tanning, Bleaching,
Dyeing ; urine as a dentrit'rice, 203,204,
205; urine in medicine, — see Therapeu-
tics ; in love-philters, — see Love-Phil-
ters ; "urine-casting," 396 ; urine as a
beverage, 6, 7, 8, 9, 22, 30, 36, 38, 39,
40, 58, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73,
74, 75, 86, 87; probably used as such
by the fairies, 86, 87. 88, 112, 118, 114,
115, 116, 117, 118; also by Hindu and
Hebrew families, 119, 120, 120; was
drunk to ease the pains of pregnancy,
233 ; English women in labor drank
their husband's urine, 284 ; this seems
to have been a very ancient practice,
235,236; urine in such eases among
the Eskimo, 236; Parsis drink buH"s
urine at Confirmation, 238; children,
at birth, forced to drink urine, 239,
240; water in which babe has just
been bathed drunk by Indians of
California, rnidwives, 239 ; the Ponca
Indians made an Omaha calumet-
bearer drink urine, 257 ; urine in
"cures by transplantation," — see
"Cures by Transplantation," Lin-
gam ; the urine of the Grand Lama of
Thibet mixed in food, 44. See In-
sults, Myths, Tolls. Urine formerly
thrown out of windows in Paris, Bor-
deaux, Madrid, Edinburgh, and many
other cities of Europe, 136, 137, 138;
urine dances, 6, 7, 8, 9, 22, 30, 65, 67,
68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 87.
See also under Feast of Fools.
Urinoscopy, 272, 273, 274, 331, 385, 386,
415; complicated with divination,
( q.v.) 272, 273, 274 ; seems to have pre-
496
INDEX.
vailed in all parts of the world, 272,
273, 274; among the Romans, 272,
273; Arabians, 272,273; in England,
272, 273, 274 ; in Germany, 272, 273,
274; France, 272, 273, 274; among the
Greeks, 272, 273, 274.
Virgil calls mistletoe the " Branch of
Gold," 72, 78.
Vitriol. See Cures by Transplantation.
Vodka. See Intoxicants.
Voudooism. See Witchcraft.
Waltz, 401.
War customs, 237, 242, 243, 256 ; captive
girls tattooed by the Mojaves, 130;
young Hottentot warriors emascu-
lated, 238; human ordure an antidote
for poisoned weapons, 312, 323; the
custom of drinking from human
skulls, 350. See Sacrifice.
" Water, Alchymical," made of urine,
183.
" Water, Bitter," of the Hebrews, 255.
" Water, Celestial," 394, 398.
•' Water, Fore-spoken," 398, 399.
" Water, Lustra!," 240, 400.
" Water of All Flowers," 366, 367. See
Millerleurs.
" Water of Dung," 199. See Excre-
ment.
" Water of Juniper," 398, 399.
" Water of Immortality," made of mis-
tletoe, 108.
Water worship, — see Holy Water, Lus-
tration ; water used ceremonially by
Moslems for ablutions after evacua-
tion, 141, 142, 143; by the Romans.
— see Latrines; negresses of Guinea,
pregnant for the first time, must bathe
in the sea, 210, 211 ; water in which a
baby had been bathed for the first
time, was drunk by the California In-
dian midwives, 239 ; " yellow water "
of the Feast of Holica, 432, 433, 434.
See also Religion.
Weaning of children in Guinea, 211,
2:36.
Weddings, — see Courtship and Mar-
riage, 48 ; Ur-orgies at Korak wed-
dings, 65, 66, 67 ; urine drunk at the
weddings of the Tchuktchi, in Sibe-
ria, 228 ; urine of the bride sprinkled
upon guests at Moorish weddings,
228 ; water in which the Russian
bride has bathed, ditto, 231 ; wine
ill uuk at weddings may have super-
seded urine of the bride, in England,
Ireland, etc., 228; wine glasses broken
at Jewish weddings, 22« ; the urine of
the medicine men was sprinkled upon
the wedded couple among Hottentots,
228, 229; urination through the wed-
ding ring bafHed witches, 230, 231.
Wells, Holy. See Water Worship.
Whale dung, amber believed to be, 271 ;
ambergris, ditto, 271.
Wine, that used by fairies seems to
have been urine, 87 ; possibly super-
seded urine at weddings, 229; wine-
glasses broken at Hebrew weddings,
229, 230; in witchcraft, 398 ; in " cures
by transplantation," — see Cures by
Transplantation ; see under Lingam,
429,430, 431; " Priapic Wine," 429.
Witchcraft, 146, 200, 373 to 434 inclu-
sive. Lapland witches used poisonous
fungi, 81, 86, — see Fairies, "Fairy
Butter; " garlic used by the Scandi-
navians to frustrate witches, 95; and
also by the Irish, 95 ; mistletoe used
for the same purpose, 107, 108 ; witches
could not hurt those who wore mistle-
toe or carried knives with handles
made of it, 108, 109 ; sacred powder
frustrates witchcraft, 116 ; witchcraft
in connection with the building of
the bridge of Respoden, 116; Laps
believe in the potency of human or-
dure and urine in, 184. See Cures
by Transplantation, Concluding Re-
marks, Amulets and Talismans.
Wysoccan," the " Mad Potion," 243.
Zoblatry. See Animal AVorship.
Date Due
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